I'm a thought. I'm an idea. I'm an invention.

I hope everyone enjoys this, and repost it wherever if they do.  The idea sparked in me, and I couldn't stop writing.  I'm sure the message is conveyed throughout.

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I'm a thought.  I'm an idea.  I'm an invention.  I'm a rather fluid and abstract sort of composition.  I don't have any physical elements.  I'm a construct of your mind, and that's where I grow.  The more creative and intelligent the individuals mind I'm in the more I grow.  I grow in everyone's mind.  I'm also shared by many people.  Many people can share me at one time.  It's a rather brilliant exposition.  There are no barriers, and that's what's magnificent about me.  More than one person can share me at a time.  Eventually, someone who has the resources will put me in physical form.  Now, the thought that turned into an idea, has now taken the place of an invention.  How excellent!  Now I can be enjoyed by many people.  The more people put me into physical form the more I can be enjoyed, and I come at no expense.  I'm an infinite resource.  Ideas and inventions have no limits.  Not until you run out of creativity, at least.

Another great thing about me is that I can change constantly.  I may be brought forth into someone's mind, and then someone else has a suggestion that may change what I may become.  Even when I'm brought into physical form I can have variations of me.  Someone may have a thought which turns into an idea to add something or take something away.  It's a rather novel idea, no pun intended.  I'm constantly changing.  As people grow, I grow.  What a splendid work of art I am!  Just go into any museum and see the many works of art that came from many people.  It was burning in their mind, spirit, and soul to a point where the physical form of me jumped out of them.  What we consider art is a manifestation of the mind.  Perfect works due to someone who knew exactly what touch to add, and what not to add, and now everyone can see it.

As I said before I also take the place of inventions.  Everything we have today was originally just an idea.  The idea of creating quicker communication and travel, or maybe more efficient means of production.  It was just an idea.  That's how it starts, and we all have ideas.  We all share ideas.  At no cost you can create cities in your mind.  The splendid things about ideas is that they are free, and limitless.

Yet, some people don't see it that way.  They feel as if ideas can be contained, and kept away.  I'm not just talking of someone who came up with a brilliant idea or invention and never told anyone.  A lot of people come up with many ideas that don't see the light of public for various reasons.  Maybe it was surpassed by something greater, or maybe the reason that gave birth to such a thought was only for someone's personal use that had no growth outside the individual.  I'm talking about something different.  Something that wants to constrain me from everyone, on purpose.

Some people believe it's right to contain me, to draw and write out all my details, but keep me locked away from everyone.  That, even though I'm free flowing, my physical form can be controlled, and manipulated, and no one else may break me free from outside this barrier by creating me somewhere else.  Many people don't realize that ideas are claustrophobic.  We don't thrive well alone suited to only a specific few individuals.  We grow when many people contribute.  Everything we have was the variation of one idea that grew through the variations of countless people who all shared the same idea, but through time was perfected.  Not one person could create such things as we have now.  Even if one person came up with a new invention, it's entire foundation would have been based on the ideas and resources of countless other people.  That individual could have no way to create such inventions without the help of others.  They don't realize how dependent ideas are on others and their ideas.

These people restrict and confine me, and believe it's their duty, that they own me.  The absurdity!  They can own an idea?  A thought?  The whole process of brainstorming is owned by all!  No man can control me!  Ideas are fluid, they go pass barriers and walls, we cross oceans and continents, and we last for ages!  We have many variants, but we thrive and are persistant.

Yet, who is to do such a thing?  No man can simply keep others from also sharing me.  Once I'm known to others, their minds also help me grow, and I'm shared amongst all.  Who has the audacity to do such things?  Well, as ironic as it is, someone had an idea that they can package ideas.  That they can take me, confine me, and call me their property.  That someone owns me, and no one else can.  What an absurd idea!  How does someone own me?  I can't begin to fathom the type of remarks amongst individuals claiming I'm theirs.  I came up with that idea!  That's my idea!  No one else can have it!  Really?  How so?  Ideas are also conflicting, it's our nature, so things like this can happen.  Even a thought can have many contradictions, that's the humor of us.

I just hope that one day I'll be broken free.  That enough people will realize no law can hold me back.  That I can jump around in many forms, and I can't be destroyed nor stolen.  I'm in all of us, and I take many forms, and I can give many feelings of not just creativity and ingenuity, but of even emotion.  No one can confine an emotion or feeling to just one individual.  Does anyone dare to confine me to just one person?  Who will confront me, of all things?  The law is perverse.  I trump the law.  Hell, the idea of law was just that, an idea!  It can also be changed.  Maybe one day the emotions of courage will fill enough people's minds that the idea of free thought will reign.  This is, of course, just an idea, and that's what I am.  Hopefully I'll find comfort in your mind.

In memory of Leonard E. Read, and "I, Pencil"