The Idea Behind "Burning Ideas"

On April 2nd, 2008, I lost everything in a fire... wait, let me rephrase that: I lost all my "personal belongings" except my laptop in a fire (I lived on the top floor of the building shown in the picture - luckily, no one was seriously injured).

In the aftermath of such an event, one often reflects on the concept of property and draws some obvious conclusions.

1) Most of the stuff we drag and keep in our homes is just STUFF, nothing more;
2) The "things" we miss the most (once they're gone) are possessions which represent an experience or a relationship (i.e. pictures, videos, music, letters, collections, etc.);
3) Losing (or gaining) everything does not decrease (or increase) who we are as individuals.

That being said, 1) most of the "stuff" I owned, I can buy back with the insurance money, 2) most of my recently taken pictures were digital and securely uploaded on Facebook, videos on YouTube, music on MySpace, letters are in the form of emails now, and collections are not really of my generation, 3) I feel alive, and that's what matters.

Of course, starting over your life from scratch is a pain (as it can be a blessing). But of all the things I regret losing the most; I especially regret losing my "shoebox" full of ideas. This is figuratively speaking, of course, but this shoebox - which people used to keep under their bed - represents the tangible (but non-digital) results of creativity that I kept locked up in my apartment. That is to say, paper-based ideas: the late night writings, the songs written on a whim, the scribble notes from particularly interesting classes, or the drawings which take a life of their own but who are simply stored in a box under a bed, waiting to burn up in flames without ever having seen the light of day.

Consequently, this blog will serve as a "digital shoebox", principally for my own archival purposes. But instead of catching an idea and keeping it to myself, like I used to, I will catch and release it like a fish, letting it swim free in this digital ocean for anyone to enjoy. Cheers!