Saturday, May 26, 2018

Intuition needs disciplined.


The Mormons who raised me wanted to call intuition The Spirit. But I think that put it in a box that it didn’t like. While yes, intuition is a recognized epistemology, somehow, The Spirit allows Mormons to keep truth in black and white lanes. While I suspect--I begin to suspect, as one does in one’s 30s--that intuition is valid and allows for much more nuance than simple True and False. I much prefer intuition as a shape-shifting target dodger and I think I enjoy the journey of the pursuit.

So, this is not what I mean about disciplining one’s intuition. Not defining it, or boxing it up. I think what I mean is that—now that I work as a scientist in a reference laboratory, this work forces me to exercise muscles that writing music doesn’t necessarily exercise. It’s helping me build this iron framework around which creativity is spiraling up like vines.

A runner goes to the gym and builds muscles in ways that running alone can’t build, but which vastly improves the running. Working on all my left brain accuracy and precision and analysis and problem-solving at work translates into having better analytical instincts for my music. And providing a clear and simple framework like this seems to free up the creativity. I’m not trying to discipline the little bursts of inspiration themselves. I can let them be, because I built a solid skeleton for them to flourish around.