idle minds

I see Dub has been up early this morning. While I was up early myself, unlike Dub, I devoted the bigger part of the morning to being purposely idle; something of an oxymoron. I was pondering Dub's April Fools post, and when I listened closely, Yes, I heard that drum. I thought about the kind of idleness Jean-Jaques described - that of a child with boundless energy and imagination. Dub used the word "tinkering" to more aptly describe that activity of idleness - unlocking the imagination, and setting it free to create what it will.

The word tinkering has an almost musical quality, doesn't it? The alliteration in the first and second syllables make it roll off the tongue in a sing-song way. It's a great word, and sent me back to another happy time, and what may be one of mankinds most profound inventions - tinker toys.

A stonemason by the name of Charles Pajeau is credited with the invention of the tinker toy in 1914. The invention was inspired by Pajeau's observance of children playing with pencils and empty spools of thread. Unbridled imagination at play. Designed around the concept of the Pythagorean progressive right triangle, at the center of the invention is the wooden hub, connected by sticks of varying length to other hubs. Like spokes in a wheel, they can be connected in infinitely many ways.

In my purposely idle state this morning, I began to imagine the universe as a gigantic, bottomless tube of tinker toys, there for us to dip in to and create whatever our idle imaginations can conjur. Spokes and hubs - particles and waves - building our reality in the perfect order of chaos. One of my favorite components of my tube of tinker toys is the green, cardboard, trapezoid, when connected to a spoke and a hub, make something akin to the blades of a fan. When acted on by the unseen forces of nature, the whole thing can be set in motion - turning like the circles of the sun. Imagine that.

Circles - with no beginning and no ending - but always coming back to whatever point of origin you choose. Like a pebble on the water - or like skipping rocks - another of my favorite childhood idle past-times. I think I will resolve to be much more idle much more of the time - but unfortunately, my tube of tinker toys seems to be missing one of those green trapezoid things and I'd better go in search of it for fear the world will stop turning.
Rick