28) Fodder

fod·der
n.
1. Feed for livestock, especially coarsely chopped hay or straw.
2. Raw material, as for artistic creation.
3. A consumable, often inferior item or resource that is in demand and usually abundant supply

Fodder is a funny thing. It's abundant, but needs to be processed in order to be useful. It requires harvesting, sifting and sorting to remove the irrelevant, not-yet-ripe parts. Combine with two parts critical thinking and one part point-of-view. Next it needs to withstand heat, pressure and concentration, which create chemical reactions that bake the raw material into something new.

Blog fodder for The Plan is everywhere. The news, books and magazines I read, movies, TV and commercials I watch, websites I scour, live shows and plays I see, and people I meet and observe. The more I can expose myself to cultural fodder, the more material I have for the blog. The more of the world I can absorb, the better my thinking and writing will be.

I felt a little uninspired in the blog topic department this week, so I just wanted to remind myself of all the fodder that's out there, just waiting to be processed.