July 8, 2024
WAX ON: WAX OFF
“A body remains at rest, or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, except insofar as it is acted upon by a force”.
(Newton’s First Law of Motion: Wikipedia)
This past week the expression “wax on/wax off” kept popping into mind as I pondered topics for my next blog. Having given myself permission to write only ”if the spirit moved me”, I was inclined to ignore the message entirely and stick to a series of mindless beach reads, the nemesis to any productive activity. Stirred out of my stupor by a restless eight year old asking to go to the beach, I brought my iPad along and reflected on how unlikely it was that the spirit would ever actually move me. And, voila, I had an example of wax on/wax off.
Reading several blogs and other commentary on the meaning of wax on/wax off, I came up with my own clever catchphrase: preparation (waxing on) is the gateway to inspiration (waxing off). Several times in the last week I have had interesting ideas come to mind, always thinking I’d remember them when I had time to write, only to have the ideas dissipate in the minutea of my day. Waiting for inspiration to come knocking was and is a surefire way to remain in that unproductive, semi-inert state. Hence why Newton’s law, roughly stated, that objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest, unless and until some force acts upon them, comes to mind. In my case, rest begat more rest begat a general physical and mental torpor. Easy enough to achieve in the summer’s heat and humidity. The force that broke my inertia was a combination of guilt that I’d whiled away my writing time, and empathy for an eight year old waiting on us big people to grant his wish to go to the beach. What does this have to do with wax on/wax off?
In the popular 1980’s film Karate Kid, Master Miyagi “begins Daniel’s training by having him perform laborious chores such as waxing cars, sanding a wooden floor, refinishing a fence, and painting Miyagi’s house. Each chore is accompanied with a specific movement, such as clockwise/counter-clockwise hand motions.
“Daniel fails to see any connection to his training from these hard chores and eventually feels frustrated, believing he has learned nothing of karate. When he expresses his frustration, Miyagi reveals that Daniel has been learning defensive blocks through muscle memory learned by performing the chores.”
For me the chores are more arbitrary (and not defensive in the least) but it is through performing small, everyday tasks, paying attention to detail, and doing the best I can with what I have where I am, that I develop positive habits that effect everything I do in life, including writing.
As I see it, inspiration will only come when I lay this groundwork of self-discipline, consistency (which is why I vowed to post a blog once a week) and impeccability that I apply to small tasks like making beds, doing dishes, washing clothes, and other chores that are entropic and potentially boring.
It may seem beside the point to organize drawers and pick stuff up off the floor (with five grandkids visiting that’s an endless chore) instead of concentrating on my blog, but it applies metaphorically to how I sort and organize the thoughts, and particularly emotions in my mind. If my living space is cluttered and disorderly, my thoughts and actions tend to fall into those same categories. Thus it’s very effective to align my intentions for writing with my actions in “real time”. If literally ironing or waxing, I can add the suggestion of smoothing out convoluted thinking, or polishing my written or spoken speech. For ideas to go from fleeting insights to coherent writing I exercise the discipline of sitting down with a blank “page” and allowing my intuition to express itself (without the interference of ego) just as “grasshopper” learns the karate skills he needs through an entirely different — and what his ego considers irrelevant — medium.
So it is that, after a trip to the beach, a rousing game of Marco Polo and collecting more wet towels than I thought we owned, I have carried this momentum into today’s blog on objects in motion tending to stay in motion. And how it vaguely relates to waxing on and waxing off.
Now to go feed my inner grasshopper a bowl of popcorn.