DAH: Want to walk up the hill?
MONKEY: What's up the hill?
DAH: I don't know. I just looked at it and thought I'd walk up it.
MONKEY: There's no point in walking up the hill if you don't even know what's up there. There's no incentive.
DAH: It's a nice day.
MONKEY: Nice day? What does that mean? And what does it have to do with the hill?
DAH: Well, it's sunny, and not too hot. There are some interesting clouds, fluffy clouds, blowing around. I looked out the back window, and thought it might be nice to go up it. Closer to the sky, too.
MONKEY: Incrementally closer to the sky, I suppose. But not much closer, in any kind of real or useful way. And still no incentive to go up the hill.
DAH: I just want to.
MONKEY: You just feel good.
DAH: Yeah, I guess I do.
MONKEY: Why do you feel good?
DAH: Looking out the back window and seeing the hill, I guess. And the blue sky. And the interesting clouds. It just made me feel good.
MONKEY: I don't understand how just looking at stuff can make you feel good.
DAH: I'm not just looking. When I take the time to look, I get feelings and ideas. I see possibilities, in my head. And the more I look, the more possibilities I see.
MONKEY: Possibilities for what?
DAH: For anything, for everything. They change all the time, the more I look.
MONKEY: When you look at anything?
DAH: Pretty much. But when I look out, at a big open view, like at the ocean, or up the hill at the sky, I tend to think bigger, happier, more hopeful thoughts and wider possibilities. More optimistic.
MONKEY: Usually you're looking at your desk and your computer screen.
DAH: Then my thinking gets smaller. I focus on all the stuff I have to do.
MONKEY: That doesn't sound too great.
DAH: It isn't.
MONKEY: Sounds like you ought to spend more time looking at the ocean and up the hill.
DAH: Bigger thoughts there, and more opportunity and hope.
MONKEY: So, why do you ever look down, at your desk, at your computer.
DAH: Because they're part of it, too, somehow. Part of it all, part of me. Plus, that's how I share.
MONKEY: Share?
DAH: All the ideas and hope and opportunity of the big view.
MONKEY: Oh, right. I get it, I guess.
DAH: I have to capture the big stuff from the hill and sky and ocean. I have to capture it somehow and share it with other people.
MONKEY: So they can see it, too.
DAH: So they can see part of it. Or so they can see what I see, or part of what I see, and understand why it matters, and maybe care themselves, too.
MONKEY: Think big, then focus.
DAH: What's that?
MONKEY: It's what you used to have on your business cards.
DAH: Right, that's right. I've got to have that again.
MONKEY: So, shall we go up the hill?
DAH: Ready?
MONKEY: Ready.
DAH is me, David Anthony Hance.
Monkey is.
Originally posted somewhere else 29-Apr-2009.