Shower Inspiration (With Help)

There once was a man who had ideas. People would listen to him for inspiration. Every idea that he had he would write down because an idea is a terrible thing to waste and an idea without action is just as bad.

You have a problem? He has an idea to help you.

Have trouble with parking space?
He has a solution

Have a bad GPA?
He knows what to do

Need an idea for a date?
Woman vow he knows their inner soul

In class, he would always answer the questions. That is, unless he gave the answer to another student.

Every day, he would fill up pages upon pages of inspiring ideas. Some ideas were better than others. He had to be very careful as too who which idea he gave to which person because, to every mind, inspiration takes on different meaning.

If he gave the wrong idea to the wrong person. They might interpret it the wrong way and be take the wrong action linked to the inspiration. He had no control over their actions revolving around the inspiration.

If he told someone to think about elephants that person would think about elephants. Their action, however, could turn into something nonreturnable.

The people to whom he gave inspiration too lacked the ability to make up ideas for themselves. They could never get inspired. He knew that inspiration is not black and white but rather, inspiration is the uprising of the soul. It sits, deep in the recesses of the mind, waiting for the soul to prompt it to come out. Giving up on inspiration is like giving up on one's dreams because once inspiration leaves, it rarely comes back. This leaves a haunting scar on the soul. These people, the people he gave inspiration to, were not taught to reach into their mind.

They could not wake up from the slumber of their soul.

Inspiration is an idea gleaned from an outside source and he was the only source.

Did he enjoy this? Of course he did! He was the most popular person on campus. He found worth in his ability to inspire, to create ideas.

Of course, things weren't always smooth and steady with his life.

He would often become tired, worn out, fatigued. So many ideas running through one persons head all day can be dangerous.

He was sick of this singular inspiration source. So he did what he knew he had to do. What had to happen in order to eliminate the world in which he lived.

He wrote the most inspiring idea ever known. He wrote and wrote, making sure nobody was around to read it.

He wrote down a solution to save the world.

After his miraculous inspiring idea of inception interpretation his ideas to people became boring. He did not like giving away his inspirations. Sure, people gave him worth by always wanting his ideas. Who doesn't want to be wanted? Eventually, this led him to tell the people that he was no longer giving away ideas.

The people turned against him, disgracing his name and were uninterested in seeing him.

He felt like a tool.

He was alone.

A mental battle prepared in his mind. Give away ideas for the rest of his life, feel popular and worthy to society, or unleash the beast of his ultimate inspiration and be unable to give away ideas ever again. For he knew that releasing this idea would cause him to lose his own inspirations.

The battle raged on, it took him over.

He had to control it, he had to act. Because inspiration involves action.

There he stood, his book of ideas in his hand and standing before him, a bottomless smelly dumpster. He knew that only one idea inside of it mattered and that this idea would make this book unnecessary. So, with quivering hands, he throws it into the dumpster. And prepares for the final battle, where he will surrender.

The next day he stood up and announced to everyone that he wanted to say something. And he unleashed his beast.

He said, "Inspiration does not come from my mouth, ideas do not come from my mind. Inspiration comes from you. Ideas come from your soul. Open your eyes, open your ears, open your mind, and feel your senses. Ideas are not just for the socially labeled 'creative.' You are the artist of your own mind. You are beautiful because you choose to be not because someone says you are. You are free-thinkers, singular bodies bursting with inspiration, souls waiting to be unchained, and a mind ready to create ideas."

Silence.

He stood there, panting from his speech, shifting his eyes scared that his idea didn't work.

Silence.

Then, slowly, they got it. The people got it. Inspiration exploded like a bomb.

As time went on, he no longer answered every question in class and he was no longer asked to give away ideas. He just sat there in silence, some say he always had a little smirk after that day.

In fact, you don't see much of him around anymore. Some say he left to go inspire in another place, some say he died right after his speech, and some say he never existed but was just inspiration in a physical form while others say that he is just taking a well deserved nap. Nobody really knows, their imaginations run wild thinking of ideas.

All they needed was to know this. That they can inspire themselves. That ideas are made within.

There is more of this to come later, (hint hint, wink wink). I came up with most of the story idea in the shower, hence the title. The (With Help) part comes from my friend Krista, who wrote a large majority of the stuff about inspiration above in a paper for a class.