Digital Martini

We all have friends who come home from work and feel the need to search for some type of liquid refreshment. Myself, and other creative people I know, search for what we call the Digital Martini.

To relax after a long day racing rats, where the rats usually win, requires a certain amount of mental and physical relaxation. Working out at the gym lifting weights, swimming, walking, jogging are a few of the methods people use to physically relieve the stress of the day. But what about the mind? Some choose to watch television, cartoons, sit-coms, while others choose to write down a sit-com that is playing out in their mind. These are the artists of the written word.

To do justice is to start with a small thought, nurture it as it begins to grow in your mind, and help it to develop its own unique personality by letting it run itself. Sitting in front of a keyboard is the most relaxing thing I have forced myself to do. Allowing my mind to become intoxicated with an alien world, or the distant past of my hometown is the greatest decompression chamber available to the human animal. For those who prefer manual entry, i.e. pen and paper, you have a small advantage. 1) You can read what you have written as opposed to simply reading the text, and 2) you are getting more of a physical element than those of use who use a keyboard. It does not matter how you express your mind, as long as you do.

Starting with a few random thoughts a story or an essay is born. How the artist directs the story line is unique in not only the person, but also unique to the individual story at that moment. If the artist started the same story a few hours later the events would undoubtedly differ from those formed earlier, depending on the events and mood of the writer. If the author was having a bad day, there may be a dark story line; if the author was having a good day, the story may be brighter or more positive.