The Hotel Pool Phenomenon

When I was very young I remember traveling with my family in the winter months. I do not remember what city we traveled to, I only remember that we lived in Atlanta Georgia and that we traveled by car. I do not recall why we traveled to this unremembered city only that we traveled with my grandparents which denoted a family gathering. What I do remember, however, is the hotel pool. I remember  my mother commenting on the way to the hotel that the pool was indoors and heated. My young mind couldn’t fathom such a thing, all the pools I swam in were outdoors and were only accessible during the summer months. I vividly remember walking down a mid-90’s hotel hallway with my family that evening and being in front of a steam covered glass door. I recall the humidity hitting me in the face when that door was opened. It was like a sauna in this room but I was mesmerized. Before me was a well lit covered swimming pool encased in square glass panes with thick metal supports between the panes. It was night outside and the light from inside the glass made the windows appear black and void. My imagination ran wild.

     If I envied anything of my younger self it is that ability to enter into periods of pure imaginative inspiration sparked by the most mundane things. Sadly, I don’t remember what I imagined I simply remember being lost is unorganized creative thought. My next door neighbor who was about my age had a Fisher Price Pop up tent that sparked my imagination in a similar way. While it was a perfectly normal canvas children’s playhouse the windows looking into the playhouse were painted black. I remember staring at those windows for what felt like hours but were most likely seconds and imagining what was on the other side of those windows.

     Since learning to play Dungeons and Dragons I have rediscovered my love of my own imagination. Not because it is a particularly good imagination or because the scenarios it creates are noteworthy but because the act of losing myself in my own mind and the spontaneous creativity that comes with that are immensely satisfying. It has become my drug. I long for those hotel pool experiences that let the imagination run free and create on its own volition. It gets harder with age though doesn’t it? I find myself lost in memory more that creativity and what I remember are often experiences I’ve tried to forget, usually violent, tragic, or horrific experience from my time in law enforcement. 

     I apologize that I’ve been rambling. Let me summarize this hotel pool phenomenon for you. The Hotel Pool Phenomenon is when your mind is brought into a place of pure imagination and creativity. My little term for those moments of inspiration. Some of those inspirational cues carry through to this day. For instance when I write I turn my computer screen black in an attempt to recapture that sense of looking into the void and populating it with my mind. I also tend to listen to gentle retro synthetic music reminiscent of the late 80’s or early 90’s when I write. This is what I imagine would have been playing in the background of those times of purely imaginative moments.

     Have you ever experienced your own Hotel Pool Phenomenon? What sparks moments of pure imaginative creativity for you? I long for more of those moments and when I have them I savor them for days. Before I go gentle reader I beg you, seek those moments, don’t let your childhood imagination drown in the pool and don’t surround yourself with people who seek to snuff it out because what you allow your mind to fill the endless void with will enrich your life and the lives of those you share it with.

This is the playhouse I remember. I will never forget those windows. How truly odd I am :-)