Notions

Is anyone else finding the word ‘idea’ tediously boring? It sounds so mundane that word “idea”. Whether being asked to come up with an idea or what idea comes to mind when the word “tree” is presented to you on a white piece of paper… it’s like we’ve become desensitised to the actual impact of the term.

It has become a mainstay in our language. Textbooks, lecture halls, every day conversations are laced with it. it is about time we mixed things up and looked to alternative ways of expressing the plain and obvious.

Turning to the renowned Wikepedia the word idea is “just whatever is before the mind when one thinks.” But what is the origin of the idea?

Greek Philosopher Plato was one of the earliest philosophers to provide a detailed discussion of ideas. So what was his take on this? Well, he believed there is a realm of Forms or Ideas, that exist independently of anyone who may have thought of the ideas. Material things are then understood as being reflections of the perfect and unchanging ideas. Leading onto the concept of Idealism. The philosophical theory that the nature of reality is based on mind or ideas. “It holds that the so-called external or "real world" is inseparable from mind, consciousness, or perception.”

However, English Philosopher John Locke’s “ An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” defines the word idea as "It being that term which, I think, serves best to stand for whatsoever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks, I have used it to express whatever is meant by phantasm, notion, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be employed about in thinking ; and I could not avoid frequently using it.” That last bit, about not being able to avoid frequently using the word idea, rings true here. Maybe that is the reason for the affinity with the word. It has grown habitual, comfortable. Like a well loved pair of jeans, though wearing thin we keep using it.

Hermann Vaske, a filmaker, has an intriguing clip on the subject of "ideas" that is worth spending a couple minutes of time at.

Looking at the explanation of the word, idea could be replaced with design; inspiration; brainwave; impression; sketch. One that I could easily adapt with is brainchild (original and attributed to a person/group). Straight away it makes the humdrum more colourful. Come up with a brainchild, what an intriguing task.

An English teacher is to thanks for my attention to words and their place/roll. A few years back we had been discussing the use of ‘awesome’ to describe the value of something. In his opinion awesome is something that takes your breath away, is inspiring and something that literally leaves you in awe. (Not that he was a literalist and nor am I) His example of something awesome was one of the seven Wonders of the World and in his wording “not that hour long segment of drivel you allowed to rot your brain last night”. This is the same man who confided in me a dislike of third form English students, wanting nothing more then to scoop them all up and tie them in a sack and throw them in the river…but I digress.

This rant has been inspired by the M&M advertisement with the song “Rock the Boat” featuring the line “Have you got the notion to….rock the boat.” After hearing this while semi-lounging near the television , the rarity of that word notion was noted. People speak in layman terms and it is saddening. Well, maybe not saddening since that can be interpreted as being a tad melodramatic but it is…odd.

Words like verbiage…are to be embraced not abandoned.