Associations...A Ramble of Words.

This entry will likely be a ramble, it may seem disjointed, but it does have a purpose.  It will try to explain some of my thought processes.  There are likely other names for what I am about to do, brainstorming may be one, but I prefer to think of it as "associations," as this was the name the process was given when it was introduced to me by my late grandfather.  He told me it was a great way to link a string of otherwise unrelated thoughts together, and when recorded could be a way to look at the big picture and see correlations and possible solutions to problems that might not otherwise been thought of.  So here goes:

I will start with the word (I am glancing around the room to get inspiration here!) Couch, which leads to Sit, to Relax, which leads to Guilty, to Shame, Low, Sigh, Ponder, Reference, Read, Books, Learning, Improvement, Pride, Optimism, Relief, Contentment, Comfort, Enjoyment, and ending at Happiness!  The process of seeing where my thoughts went may not be too complex here, as I was aiming for a neutral thought process to illustrate.  I also kept it relatively short with just twenty words, and single words, no phrases or multiple-word thoughts.  The first bit of the string is self-explanatory--you sit on a couch, obvious first thought!  I obviously thought of relaxing when I sit, which led me to think of feeling guilty, as there are probably a lot of other things I should be doing, other than relaxing!  Thoughts of guilt make me feel shame, which in turn makes me feel low--and there it is, Sigh, at which point I ponder, which leads me to reference my thoughts, which I will do by reading, and yes another obvious--books, from which much learning can occur.  Learning leads to improvement, which can be a source of pride, leading to increased feelings of optimism.  Optimism can be a source of relief, leading to a level of contentment, providing comfort, which can bring enjoyment, and now to the final word in the string Happiness!  Overall, this string of thoughts held a positive note, other than the guilty, shame, and low thoughts.  I could look also to my first word and last word in this case and say Does couch equal Happiness?  It is after all where I ended up!  I had to follow a thought process to get there, and yes, maybe this time that is true.  I love how all of us and our thoughts are unique.  I bet if a whole roomful of people did what I just did, starting from the word "couch" none of us would have the same 20 words.  Some of our thought processes might be similar, and yes, we might each have some words in common, but eventually people's thoughts, experiences and perspectives would take them in different directions.  We would likely end up with completely different words at the end of our associations--all from starting from the same word in common! 

I know of a card game that uses the idea of associations, but with players telling a story using the words and picture printed on the cards.  Someone starts with a card and begins a storyline based on their word.  The next person pulls their card and has to continue the story using their word.  It amazes me how the story changes so quickly and the twists and turns it can take.  You can start off with "Farm" and talk about how much you enjoyed seeing the animals on one.  The next word may be something totally unrelated, like "Desk,'" and the second person, may mention that someone threw a desk out near the farm, which in turn might lead to "Fire," and someone may mention using said desk in a fire... It could go on and on.  Some of the stories could get pretty wacky, but the idea is to somehow link the seemingly unrelated, random words, which had I not explained my thought process a bit, may have seemed random and unrelated--until I had a bit of a roll and linked a bunch of more obvious thoughts together.  

Maybe my example wasn't the best, but I wanted to keep it simple and neutral.  After all I'm not really sure if my purpose writing this, is to get too racy or off-colour.  If I do it will be entitled "XXX," so be forewarned!