Unquotable Quotes

Every now and then, people will come up to me and say, "I've been thinking about what you said the other day." I always tell them the same thing: "What did I say?"

Whenever this situation occurs, I have two thoughts. The first is that my memory is garbage. The second is that the smartest things I say happen when I'm not trying to be smart.

Sometimes thinking is its own activity. I get so lost in a thought that I don't realize how long I've been talking. Any of the sentences I say in that time may be incredibly poignant to somebody, but to me they're meaningless by themselves; they were merely part of a larger stream of thought.

I do not regret what I do, though. I am happy that I have a stream of thought. If one of the sentences in that stream affects somebody, that's just gravy. However, I do try to be more conscious of my thoughts. Sometimes, there is gold in there that I am missing.

When I chat with my friends, I try to be as silly as I possibly can. Usually I come up with random, insane statements ("my face is significant") or scenes that are unlikely to exist in the real world ("I saw a turtle surfing on a chicken"). Most of these are throwaway jokes; I say them, we laugh, we move on. But occasionally, it occurs to me that a joke could have more than one use.

I made a joke today that played off of the phrase 'shadow boxing'. It was good for a laugh, but before I finished laughing, I realized, this is perfect for a comic strip! In fact, not only was it good for one strip, it was good for an entire series of strips.

Sometimes I'm haunted by the idea of how many great ideas I've let slip through my fingers just by not realizing how great a joke I made could be. But since I keep coming up with these ideas, I at least am not afraid of running out. Still though, I make it a habit to perk up my ears more often. When something is funny, I need to make sure I pay attention to it, especially if I'm the one who said it.

And I suggest you do the same. Tune your ears in. Search for the interesting things around you that you just aren't realizing are there. Look for some unquotable quotes and share those with the world.