DOODLING WHILE THINKING

No texting while driving.  No yawning during first dates.  Got it.  How about doodling while thinking?  Is that cool?

I thank my dad for this habit/skill/social no-no that I’ve developed over the years.  He was the master of busting out the pen and inking his thoughts on the go.  The reason behind it is very simple, and not meant to offend.  Perhaps you do it too?

My mind is clearer when I’m doodling.  I focus, listen, and understand better when my pen is moving across the page.  Or whatever happens to be at hand.  A bar coaster, a napkin, a cheap paper placemat, the back of a business card.  I used to have, somewhere in my sketchbook tomb, samples of university notes I took entirely in doodle form.  There was a Cultural Studies intro course I took, I remember it vividly, and almost every one of our 2-hour lectures I translated into 81/2 x 11 landscapes replete with key graffiti words and animated concepts bouncing off the page.  And I remember it because I drew it.  If only the prof would let us doodle our answers on the exams, that’d be sweet.

Over dinner with friends?  All the time.  Some people have told me flat out it’s rude, which is their opinion.  I offered for them to take me out to the parking lot and beat me up, because I am no fighter I tell ya.  I can’t help it.  A meeting recently presented me with the opportune moment to doodle and I’m quite sure the presenter was non-plussed about it, judging by the sour gaze he shot me.

Whatever.  I fully endorse it.  It’s far less rude than cruising your friend’s profiles while in the company of friends in real life, and the reality is, everyone thinks differently.  Howard Gardner says so.  Heck, if you need to sculpt the butter and jam while we’re shooting the breeze, go for it!  Here is a doodle I drew with my good friend Mike Rooth, who was kind enough to scan it for posterity.  Not only are we still friends, he even thought it was ‘cool’.  He named it Jester ’Sandworms’.