IMPROVISATION

There is something about gray days that goes far beyond depressing the sun and me. Waking up to the dark takes me a few minutes to guess whether I am awakening from a nap or it is really morning! Rain falling gently adds tiny sounds, randomly, that keep me aware that Nature has taken control of my yard and the outside world in a manner to keep me indoors. That, in itself, is not unusual. My world is, for the most part, indoors.

Like most others, my day begins with ablutions, creaking, moving to start joint lubricants flowing, putting things away that weren't put to bed last night, then turning on the computer, loping past it on my way to the kitchen. BBC News is my home page. The world news is more depressing than the weather but one article catches my eye. It reads: Brain Surgery with a DIY drill. It is about a remarkable neurosurgeon from the UK who visits the medically ill-equipped Ukraine and helps a surgeon-friend perform operations. While I had previously written about my discovery of the meaning of innovation, I have now learned what it truly means to improvise. Previously improvisation immediately associated my mind to Jazz. I then recalled learning, when my first child was born half a Century ago, that I didn't need all the equipment made to care for babies. I didn't need a 'bathinette', for example (for which I had neither funds nor space), because the kitchen sink did just fine. I have no idea when I first improvised but this is my first association to the realization that lots of things have multiple uses. Today we learn that even medications for one purpose may be used for another by accident or a physician's improvisation of use.

Having been told since I was a child that I have a creative mind, that meant little to me until I realized it said I could solve problems and survive when I had few other tools for the task. With the aid of a blender, I improvised baby food at a fraction of the price those little jars would have cost had I the money to buy them. There was no Internet then, nor even the how-to books or TV shows there are today. There was no Martha Stewart, no HGTV, no 'This Old House' and rarely instructions other than from my friends or relatives who might have known more than I but were not always helpful or accurate with their instructions. People are often ready with advice for things that 'should' work though they never tried their ideas themselves. This is how I also learned that innovation requires an ability to think in terms of cause and effect. It is shocking that not everyone sees those two in succession. The concreteness of that sequence is brought home to anyone who has ever tried to program a computer. "If this; then that."

Now if our war-mongering Administration and politicians could have been more creative, innovative and improvisational.......ah, but that is a rant, not a blog for today.