Brainstorming Again!

One of the things that charmed me most (and which I now miss) about advertising was brainstorming.

Looking for a big idea, two to six people clump together—usually in a small corner or the corridor—to pick each other's brain. The rules: “No censorship. Say what's in your mind, no matter how stupid.” 

It usually begins slow, then, like building blocks, a blah thought is tossed around like a ball. Before it is passed back to the originator, the ball has already taken a different shape.

The new shape is further molded and melded as the tempo gets faster and faster, the laughter, louder and louder, the temperature, hotter and hotter, till everyone—almost like an explosion—“Yes!”  The bulb over each head simultaneously lights up big time.

These days I brainstorm only with myself. Well, I sometimes get lucky and get my boys to put their heads together with me—but their interest span is so short their minds are gone before mine sets in.

So one day last week, I posted a message on an FB group page of former office mates:

“I am writing a book on retirement. Could you help me with a creative title?”

I was almost knocked over by the rush of speeding ideas, tossed back and forth from one response to another—like  being in a small corner or the corridor brainstorming—except that we weren't clumped together in one space. 

Some of the suggested titles are:  

My Private Part Died, Today is the Viewing

You're Only Retired, Not Dead

Retired, but Not Retarded

Expired

Been There, Done that

Re: Tired

Gimme Back My Bio-data!

Gone fishing, Gone fishy

Enough Said

The Road Less Trampled

I'm Outta Here

Eat, Pray, Love, Retire

The more serious ones are now also in my grace list; many more, I'm sure, are coming.

And I am charmed all over again.