Re: RAT Which Idea Now?

[Chris Jeffries <cjeffries@seanet.com>]

Good gambit, JB.  Deal me in.

1.  Does the project have _you_ written all over it?

2.  Years on, recalling the time spent putting it together, will you say,
"Those were wonderful days"?

3.  All projects demand and consume energy; will this one also give energy
back?  Will it keep you enlivened as well as drained?
COROLLARY:  Will it feed you?  (As Doug said, theatre is food.)  Rule of
thumb: will you and others want seconds?  If it is merely delicious without
being nutritious, or vice versa, you're going to get tired of eating it day
after day.  Think Oliver Twist: will you want to risk everything by asking
for more?  Will your collaborators?  Will your audience?

If you can answer 'yes' to all of these questions -- a full-throated 'yes'
that will not turn to ashes in your mouth later on, no matter what happens
-- you are lucky and had better appreciate it.  If, however, nothing occurs
to you that meets the above criteria (or whatever yours may be), then while
you wait, you are faced with a choice between doing Something and doing
Nothing.  Both have advantages; either can 'turn,' like milk, with time.
(Bob Dylan: "Too much of nothing/Can make a man ill at ease....")

To decide which to do, figure out which you've been doing lately, Something
or Nothing.  Then ask:  "Am I habitually grumpy these days?"  If yes,
switch; try the other for a while and see if it helps.