# notes --- - [[{5.1a1} idea gardening is collecting seeds that can be planted later]] - [[the garden is an unhappy place for the perfectionist]] - [[{5.1a1a} gardening is a protest against control, perfectionism, and the status quo]] # highlights --- > [!highlight]+ Sat Jan 20 2024 00:37:30 GMT-0500 > > I collect gardening metaphors because the lessons of gardening are basically the opposite of the messages we receive from our controlling, technocratic, perfectionist, algorithmic, optimizing status quo. ^76e89b > [!highlight]+ Sat Jan 20 2024 00:37:30 GMT-0500 > > “The garden is an unhappy place for the perfectionist,” writes Michael Pollan. “Too much stands beyond our control here, and the only thing we can absolutely count on is eventual catastrophe.” (Sounds like, well, life in general.) > [!highlight]+ Sat Jan 20 2024 00:37:30 GMT-0500 > > One of my favorite gardening metaphors comes from the great picture book maker Mo Willems. At the end of the year, Willems will post a photo of his notebooks, which he calls his ”idea gardens.” > [!highlight]+ Sat Jan 20 2024 00:37:30 GMT-0500 > > I’m afraid you may not like the answer because ideas are not things you get. People tend to think that ideas are things like diamonds. And then you go out and you get them and you grab them and you bring them back. But that's not what ideas are. Ideas are things that grow. > [!highlight]+ Sat Jan 20 2024 00:37:30 GMT-0500 > > And so the way to make a book or a story is to have the tiniest inkling of an idea and then to plant it and you plant it in a notebook and in that notebook you move it around and you see what it needs, what sort of nutrients will help it. And you draw and you draw it over time and slowly, some of those seeds will grow and die. And then some of those seeds will become invasive and they'll just sort of choke up your whole garden of ideas and that's not fun. > [!highlight]+ Sat Jan 20 2024 00:37:30 GMT-0500 > > And then every now and then, one idea sort of grows up and gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and starts to bear fruit and become a tree and get so big that you can cut it down and burn it for profit, which is called writing or making a book. So every day I am planting little seeds in my notebook. ^8d4f39 > [!highlight]+ Sat Jan 20 2024 00:37:30 GMT-0500 > > Matter of fact, today I just finished a notebook filled with all kinds of little seeds and when I finish a notebook on the front page, I write all of the story ideas that are inside that notebook. And then I go back a month later or two months later or a year later and I see how they've grown. > [!highlight]+ Sat Jan 20 2024 00:37:30 GMT-0500 > > At the end of every year, I’ll sit down and revisit the previous year’s gardens to see if there’s any idea or notion that deserves renewed attention