The visual representation of a good idea is usually a light bulb.
Since Thomas Edison’s popular invention was, in itself, a stroke of inspiration, it seems apropos. It’s the symbol that is instantly recognizable in cartoons and comic strips. It doesn’t require a word to convey an idea.
But it’s also wrong.
The ideas that change things are almost never electric bolts from the blue that shower us with illumination.
The thing that illustrates an idea in the making ought to be a question mark.
An idea is really an answer. It begins with a question. How do move things from here to there? The wheel. How do I convey my words across the country? The telegraph. How do I light up my room in the dark? The light bulb.
That’s what makes Dylan Seelnacht’s effort to improve his community illuminating. It started with a question.
A Harrison resident and Brackenridge native, he asked on Facebook what people in those two areas and Tarentum would like to see happen to make them better places to live.
The post exploded with hundreds of responses, prompting Seelnacht to create the “Harrison/Brackenridge/Tarentum Revitalization Efforts” Facebook page. In less than a month, it garnered 1,300 members. That’s more than 7% of the population of the three municipalities.
Because once you ask a question, it pours oil on the gears of the mind. It prompts conversation and an exchange of thoughts. And that’s where the ideas come in.
If Benjamin Franklin didn’t wonder about electricity, he wouldn’t have broken out that kite. If Jonas Salk didn’t wonder if there was a way to stop polio, he wouldn’t have found a vaccine. Questions gave us Slinky toys and home permanents and emoticons and Mr. Yuk stickers. And that was just in Pennsylvania.
Maybe something amazing for the community will come out of the public meeting being planned for Feb. 17. Maybe not, because not every idea comes to fruition.
The important part is to keep asking the questions, because that’s how ideas come to light.
