Hello gentle readers, writers, and aficionados of a strange and lovely vocabulary (much respect to my fellow sapiosexuals out there–that’s a word for a different blog I suppose), ahem…sorry, where was I? Ah, yes. Ideopraxist. Honestly, I just fanned through the pages and landed in the id-im page and I was torn between this lovely word and “imbrute”. Since this one came first, and it also carries a bit more positive connotations, I thought I’d run with it.

Ideopraxist: One who is impelled to action by an idea; one who works to bring an idea to fruition in reality. (from Dictionary of the Strange, Curious & Lovely, by Robin Devoe)

Listen, Merriam Webster didn’t have this listed, which made me have to dig a little bit for more information. The British dictionaries seem to agree to this definition, in that it is a person who is moved to bring an idea into action. It originated sometime in the 1830’s and was first used by Thomas Carlyle a Scottish essayist, philosopher, writer and mathematician (he apparently invented the Carlyle circle: I’m not going to bore you with the rabbit hole I fell into about circles and quadratic equations and some of his more fascists leanings? We’re gonna stray away from that and focus on the word).

To be impelled to action by an idea. To bring an idea to fruition in reality. A more perfect word for dreamers, creators, writers, and artists may not exist. But it is also a most tortuous word. For I’ve yet to meet a writer who didn’t struggle with how to bring their ideas into the world the same way they appear in our minds. I have yet to find a photographer, painter, actor who got the first shot, stroke, or line exactly right. We are both ideopraxists and idiots. (I don’t mean that really, I mean it through the lens of frustration with which our brains and abilities allow, or don’t, an accurate accounting of what we’re thinking and seeing inside of our minds.) As Steven King once said:

“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out.”

We are in constant process of trying to bring ideas into the world. We are so driven by an idea that we are impassioned to act because of it. This a beautiful, and terrible, human concept. Driven by our ideas. Ideas that can be both, ingenious and amazing, and also terrible and hurtful. Like when someone has an idea to draft a Declaration of Independence. Or when someone else has an idea to start a needless war. Ideas are power. (In my case, ideas are mostly just half-assed sentences scribbled in the margins of the morning paper; “what if a lovable group of elderly mystery book club members used all of their knowledge of poisons to do something swift, and undetectable about the presidential cabinet?” *disclaimer to any CIA/FBI/Secret Service member reading this, I write fiction and really, even if I didn’t, would you be THAT mad?)

With all of the millions of ideas sprouting up out of each our billions of little heads, the world is a vibrant and deadly garden of thought. Luckily (or not) not every thought gets acted upon. Not every idea flourishes. Not every plan, goes to plan. So how do we know which ones to let go, like dandelion fluff in the wind (*see secret service guy, I’m harmless, and flighty, just waxing poetic about dandelions) and which to carefully plant, water, tend to, and birth (ew?) into creation?

I can’t tell you that (not because like my new bestie at the FBI, I’d have to kill you). But I think it is safe to say that when an idea hits, whether as a whisper, or a like the butt of a Glock 9mm to the temple (standard issue for the FBI) there is a knowing that threads out tendrils into the other parts of our brain. It feels like a tickle at first, you think of the idea, or read something that sparks it, and instead of it floating past, your little soggy, electrified, clump of raw bacon starts to form small connections. Starts to wonder, starts to contemplate…

…Where would these little old ladies meet? How could they possibly agree to this (How could they NOT)? How would they do it without being detected? Does the White House accept baked goods?…how do they get caught? Do they get caught? How can they get over the fence with bum hips?…

Pretty soon, other parts of the brain start to fire.

…Beatrice is five foot two but she was a gymnast in her younger days, she’s kept spry with Tai Chi and regular chiropractic visits. Loraine used to work as a cyber security analyst until AI took her job and forced her to retire early. Janice, who’s lost three fingers in combat doesn’t give a fuck anymore and she can make a mean Kentucky Bourbon Cake…

Suddenly you’re hearing them speak, conversations running through your head…scenes that play out like a movie, hilarious and heart warming. And frankly kind of scary in the cool way that makes you remember you can’t mess with grandma or you’ll get a wooden spoon to the back of the head. Long ways if she doesn’t like you.

Some ideas are silly and fantastical and are fun to write. Some ideas are scarier to think about (forming a peaceful protest against a combative government). But all of the ideas that settle into our brains and tug at our core values to do something, will help to drive us into action. Writing that next story, painting that next canvas, drafting that next bill to put before congress, or leading the next revolution…they’re all actions of bravery that are inevitable for each and every human who contains the spark of idea.

I wish you a creative week. I wish you forward action on something that drives you. I wish you safety and courage. I gotta go, there’s a knock at the door. It sounds official…