Every week, when I sit down to write this blog, I open up, in Microsoft Word, a Blank Document. Sometimes I know exactly what I’m going to write, even down to the phrasing. Sometimes I have a general idea but have yet to develop it. Sometimes I have only the title. I start writing and then, halfway through, change the title because I realise the blog is going in an entirely different direction. Sometimes, I have no idea until I start to write.

I’m a great fan of the cartoonist Larson. I love this cartoon especially. In the first panel, a flock of ducks are peacefully quacking away. In the second, one of them yells “Chicken!” The ducks all hunch down as a chicken flies over their heads. The fourth panel is a repeat of the first. There is no need for a caption, but here it is: “And so,” the interviewer asked, “do you ever have trouble coming up with ideas?” “Well, sometimes,” the cartoonist replied.

I’m sure we’ve all had that feeling of utter blankness, when a question is asked, and we have absolutely no idea of the answer. Sometimes it is a question with few consequences, like (as often happens in our house) “Mum – do you know where my (insert item here) is?” Usually I know, because it’s a mother’s job to know where everything is in the house; there is some magic which is handed out on the birth of one’s first child, which gives this special power, but occasionally I will come up blank.

Sometimes the question has consequences, such as in a job interview. It’s easy to panic in that situation, which makes the blankness even worse, and can throw us off for the rest of the interview. Recently, my daughter presented a university project. One of the assessors asked her why she hadn’t done X. She paused for a moment and then said honestly, “I hadn’t thought of it.” When she debriefed with her tutor afterwards, he berated her because the answer was easy: “If I had done X, it would have been a completely different project.”

Sometimes the answer is so simple we kick ourselves afterwards for not having thought of it at the time. “Have you thought of looking where it should be?” is a favourite of mine when asked where something is – but sometimes I am so busy thinking of where is could be that I forget the obvious place. There is a trick to finding lost items, however. I used to have a lovely leather case for my Kindle. At some point, the case disappeared, and I haven’t been able to find it for a couple of years. Last week, I gave in and ordered a new case (not in leather, as I couldn’t find one in the same design). If the case has not been completely lost, you can bet it will turn up again in the next couple of weeks and I will berate myself for not having looked in that obvious place.

When did you last come up with a blank, with absolutely nothing, and how did it make you feel? If, afterwards, the answer was obvious, how did you feel then?

Mary

A Moodscope member