On inspiration

One of the most com­mon ques­tions peo­ple ask me is, “Where did you get your inspi­ra­tion to write…“ to which is added the title of one my books.

The word inspire seems to derive from an old French word, and it first appears in Eng­lish print when Chaucer used it (1405) in the mem­o­rable open­ing words of his Can­ter­bury Tales. “Whan zephirus eek w^t his sweete breeth / Inspired hath in euery holt and heeth / The ten­dre croppes.” The word itself, if one is to trust the Oxford Unabridged Dic­tio­nary (which I do), actu­al­ly means…to breathe life into something.

It’s an inter­est­ing word, and fits the ques­tion quite well, though I doubt its real mean­ing is in the mind of the kids who ask “Where did you get your inspi­ra­tion to…”

I think they are ask­ing, “How did you ever think of that?” a vari­ant of that most com­mon of ques­tions, “How do you get your ideas?”

Nev­er­the­less, the ques­tion, when asked, implies to me that my ideas come from some­where beyond, not from my thoughts, life, and, expe­ri­ence. Com­ing from the kids, it sug­gests they don’t have ideas. But, of course, they do. Yet, they don’t seem to give them val­ue. The ques­tion of the day is, Why not?