The Muppet in My Head

Being a lifelong Muppet fan, one of my all time favorite characters is the dubious trench-coated Lefty the Letter Salesman on Sesame Street that would sneak up to Ernie and say in a low voice, "Hey, Mac, ya wanna buy an 'M'?"

Of course Ernie, being Ernie, would shout, "An 'M'?!?" whereupon the furtive Lefty would shush Ernie in a panic, and Ernie would whisper, An 'M'? and Lefty would say in a low voice,

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight."

That voice inside my head, you know, the one that we all have that utters common sense plees, words of wisdom, and general warnings of overload, so very often is the furtive muppet saying, "riiiiiiiiiiiiiight!" (as in right brain hemisphericity *not* politics). 

The voice comes when I've been doing bookkeeping and inventory just a few hours too long.  It begs me to pick up my sketchbook and iPad and run away from my desk.  "Escape the left brain madness before the toxic neck tension that preceeds a migraine makes it up one more vertebra!"

So here I am, obeying, at the coffee bar, sipping my decaf mocha with organic milk, and hacking away on the new iPad keyboard my sweety got me here in the ignored chaos of clinking glasswear, sucking espresso machines, odd music, and a shared picnic table with first grade teachers grading homework even though my house is quiet and empty save one fluffy sheltie.

I was headed home, in the lane to turn left and diligently tackle the next major task on the to-do list, when I listened to Right (brain) Dude in My Head and took a detour.  It wasn't the task list I wanted to avoid (and anyway, scheduling time to blog has been necessarily postponed on the list at least 4 times in the last 2 weeks).  It wasn't really even the chaos that is our house because we're to busy working to deal with or my studio, which is also in that extra special state of chaos that happens during this busiest time of year.

It was the simple awareness that I am a saner, calmer, more productive person when I listen to Right-Brain Dude in My Head.  Yes, feel free to be impressed.  It's taken me decades. While the stereotype of the artist is a flaky procrastinator, I, ever the rebel from the norm, am an odd mix of Dyonisian Puritanism: revel in the sensual beauty of creativity... as soon as you've checked off the 4 million things you need to do today which include, by the way, smelling the proverbial flowers and reveling in said sensual beauty of creativity.

Now the words flashing around in my head are safely in the Penceive of Evernote and soon to be in Blogger.  The sketchbook is coming out of my bag momentarily... there are these Art Nouveau feather flourishes that are winding their way into earrings in my mind... must get them onto paper...

Are you listening to the Muppet in Your Head?