In Between the Radio Stations

I had a thought that pleased me. A clever turn of phrase. Then I grunted in dismay as I realized I couldn't write it down on my phone, as I was in the shower at the time. Just as I began to realize that I would forget my thought by the time I got out of the shower, I came to understand that I had already forgotten. It was gone. Long gone, within seconds. Almost instantly irretrievable.

That's how it works for me. So much potential is lost in so many moments like that. A crafty retort. A couple of words that just sound good together and are fun to say. A budding concept for an interesting new species of creature in my epic fantasy world. A brief recall of a task I need to accomplish by tonight. So many missed opportunities for greatness! Vanishing from wherever thoughts come from in the first place.

Here's a novel thought. Perhaps these thoughts are just borrowed. Maybe none of my thoughts are my own to begin with. They're not something that originate from me. They are just fleeting through the air in some nearby dimension. I happened to be at the same wavelength for just a moment, and then I wasn't. I only stopped long enough for a brief hello. Then the thought was gone again. Drifting on some strange unseen current that exists in that thought dimension. A dimension consisting only of floating thoughts that briefly touch our world through these ground meat brains of ours that just so happen to tune into the same wavelengths on occasion.

Some people are really good at hanging onto these thoughts. Many people adopt these thoughts, and they keep the thoughts with them for most of their meat brain lives. Not my meat brain, though. Mine can only flicker on that wavelength for brief moments.

Here's an analogy that shows my age.

I had a radio that sat at the head of my bed as a kid. Most people listen to the music that plays on the various radio stations. I did too. But I also liked what was between the radio stations. I twisted a physical knob to adjust the frequency. The wavelength. The music would grow staticky until there was only static. White noise. Then, as you keep turning, you'd run across another station. The static would dissappear, and you'd be listening to GnR's November Rain. If you spun the dial fast enough, you could create a strange sound flickering between static and random snippets of music or talk radio. And if you left the knob in between stations and just listened to the static, volume turned up, lights off... you'd swear you could hear unintelligible alien voices buried in the white noise. Enough to make the hair stand up on your neck and give you the tinglies.

That's like where the thoughts come from. It's another universe. And our meat brains can sometimes tune in and link up. Except my meat brain has two modes. Flickering through the stations too quick to hang on to any thought for long, or stuck between stations and squinting into the static to listen to the ghosts.

This whole thought only exists in this realm of the multiverse because I wrote it down in real time while I was still thinking it. While I was still listening to that frequency, while I was still in tune with the right wavelength. I had the presence of mind to put it into words on my phone before it drifted back into its own dimension. This way there is a record of its visit to our realm through my mind. And I am able to share it with you. Just imagine all the curious thoughts I tune into that I don't write down!