What Inspires You?

I spent a good part of the morning trying to cobble together a speech for a friend that I’m a little ambivalent about. Ambivalent about the speech, not the friend, just in case you were wondering.

It was supposed to be inspirational, and about inspiration, but somehow it fell, well, flat.

So, desperate for inspiration, I tried to dig deeper, to understand.


In*spire (verb)

in*spire [in spir]. (with a squiggly thingie above the I that I couldn’t achieve. So fail me.)

Stimulate somebody to do something
Transitive and intransitive verb to encourage people into greater efforts or greater enthusiasm or creativity.

Prove a feeling
Transitive verb to arouse a particular feeling in someone.

Cause creative activity
Transitive verb to stimulate somebody to do something, especially creative work or the making of art.


So inspiration is, apparently, about me doing something that evokes a certain (positive, it is implied) response in another.

I wonder though, whether inspiration works best when it is incidental.


In*ci*den*tal (adjective)

In*ci*den*tal [insi dent’l]

related to or accompanying
related to or accompanying something more important.

occurring by chance
occurring by change or without intention.


As in someone was just going about the business of life and living and voila, they’ve inspired someone.

As opposed to the more contrived end of the continuum. That would go something like: ok now, let’s see, what can I do to inspire them?

I don’t know.

But for what it’s worth, today I was inspired by Maya Angelou, the Phenomenal Woman, who’s so comfortable with herself and her body at seventy plus, that when she was asked about growing older and body changes on Oprah, she said about her breasts:

"They seem to be in a race to see which one will reach my waist first."

I think she should write the B-dialogues. Today's woman needs them.

Be inspired today.

Inspire today.