FOUR IN THE MORNING

I was making carrot muffins, and went looking for a TED talk that had been suggested to me about teaching introverts. It wasn't trending, or obvious when I opened the app, but as I was browsing, I found a talk that caught my attention first. It had a romantic quality that I love in a title: The Museum of Four in the Morning.  I love the idea of museums and libraries, and lofty titles. A Cabinet of Curiosities. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. The Cemetary of Forgotten Books. A museum is a place I love. It's a place I want to go to, and return to. It's a place I want to bring others. It reminds me of travels to New York and Regina. I can walk through every room at the Redpath in my minds' eye. It makes me think of my days working in the library. Visiting libraries in Europe. Watching the heros of the series The Librarians or Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol looking things up in the Library of Congresses archives. So instead of looking further, I pressed play, and was treated to a storytelling arc that rivals most.

Rives begins the talk like this:

"The most romantic thing to ever happen to me online started out the way most things do: without me, and not online."

How is that for a great lead!

He goes on to talk about a poem that he read by a Nobel laureate poet named Wislawa Szymborska that goes like this:

Then he introduces a mystery that we the viewer are not even sure is real. Has he heard this poem before?

Like all good thoughts that cannot be answered by google, he had no choice but to let the notion go. But like all good thoughts, the best was going to bubble to the surface again, and in this particular case, eventually become a geyser.

He had been invited to speak at a TED talk FOR A SECOND TIME, and, as a self-proclaimed "authority on nothing", he was looking for a niche, and used some of his collected FOUR IN THE MORNING examples. The response started looking like a full-blown meme. Rives had the good sense to embrace this unexpected collection and started archiving.

So the next time the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (or frequency bias) starts happening to you, and the confirmation bias that follows helps lead you to yet another obsession, enjoy it. You never know where it may lead.

In poet Rives' case, it led to a brilliant TED talk, and enough of a collection to make a cultural museum that gave me great joy tonight.

Turned on its head, this is a perfect example of how your interest in anything could drive the breakthrough you are looking for. So if you wish you had a collection of elephants, ask people about it. Tell people what you wish for. Research your most desired ideas. Be open to others' feedback. Write it down. Share your idea. It just might become a gift of a meme.

My motto is "Beauty is not Optional". I don't just want to survive in life; I want to thrive. I don't want something just to function, I want it to be beautifully designed. This talk was beautiful. It should not be optional. Watch it, and be amazed at the beauty in the mundanist detail.

In the middle of the night, while on call in the hospital, a fellow resident would always say: you know how truly alone you are in the world when you are awake and alone in your bed. He didn't give a precise time, but given natural sleep cycles and circadian rhythms, I don't doubt that, if given another chance, he would declare this to be especially true at 4 in the morning.

Editor's addition November 19, 2019: 4 in the morning features in Kinsey Milhone's life at the end of chapter 18 in E is for Evidence, a Christmas based event
Also, wrote it in a speech I am preparing for the residents, if they ever ask to hear me rant (so far 3 staff asked).