“If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, and music, you will automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry period in my life because I feed myself well.” ~ Ray Bradbury
I’ve been thinking about the Signal-to-Noise Ratio lately—not in the literal sense, but in the figurative informal sense: how much substance can be found in all the “noise” of my life?
For artists, for creatives, for thinkers, that’s the question we most need to ask. Where’s the substance, and are we partaking regularly? Where’s the well, and are we drinking constantly?
Bradbury says we have to “stuff” ourselves with inspiring content—true signal—not just the noise that numbs our senses and dulls our awareness of inner dialogue.
Lately, I’ve stuffed myself with:
- Rilke
- Lamott
- Emerson
- Sabrina Ward Harrison
- Jonsi
- J.J.Abrams
- Basquiat
- Christine Valters Paintner
I’m feeling more inspired, less tired, ready to pour out onto page and canvas. It’s the steady rhythm of input and output, in balance, that gives me energy to create. But this can’t be achieved haphazardly. I have to consciously “stuff” myself with content and spend a little less time on the things that are just noise. (Did you notice what’s not on my list?)
More signal. Less noise.
What are you doing to stuff yourself?
