Daily doodles straight from an aging brain

Daily doodles are a short-cut to the activity in my aging brain. They are much quicker to do than to explain.

Concealing a temporary, benign but ugly skin condition

• Explaining the “meaning” in prose might take 10 minutes and, say, 200 words.
• Writing an equivalent poem might take me two hours over 7 days and, say, 50 words.
• Drawing that scribbly cartoon took me less than a minute and 5 words.

Hate hateful evil self-defeating planet-destroying war

Watching Netflix with a pen in my hand

As a face-blind person, I like trying to draw faces on Netflix. It helps me to see how one face is different from another.

I remember hair protecting my aging brain

If I had more hair it would cover my band-aid. Or not.

Sometimes there is nothing in my ageing brain

Nothing but whimsy and drifting ideas that float away into space. A doodle captures the sensation, but not the content.

Here endeth the news from my aging brain

I hope you enjoyed the tour. I learn a lot from my daily doodles. I learn stuff that I may have missed about my own subjective experience. I’m not talking about dementia (although that interests me).

Do you doodle?

Do you scribble? Do you sketch? I recommend it — but not as an earnest endeavour. The very word “doodle” is so silly that it forbids a serious approach. I suggest you do it for fun, just for yourself. And see what happens.

I’m figuring that one day I will be incapable of writing a book or even a blog post. Even now, in conversation, it’s unwise for me to launch into a long sentence. (Hint: avoid starting with subordinating conjunctions such as Although, Despite, Because, While.) When that day comes, I’ll fall back on daily doodles. My hand will carry messages from my heart, from my subconscious, and from my top-of-mind to myself. And perhaps to my care-givers and family.

• P.S. You can see my daily doodles as they happen on Instagram. Follow Instagram.com/aybrow1
• Another look at creative life as we start getting old.