Hear ye, Hear ye, read all about it!

Delores E. Topliff

Welcome to 2018, a year of fresh opportunities to create history and make headlines. In fact, there’s no reason any of us might not make news in 2018 by introducing popular new products, best-selling books, useful inventions, medical breakthroughs–the sky’s the limit. The only bottom-line requirement is enough innovation to prove Solomon wrong–there are new things under the sun. 

Anyone can qualify. All it takes is seeing a problem and working on its solution. Some say genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration—after lightbulb ideas, elbow grease brings concepts to reality. 

Some discoveries are made by wondering about everyday events that happen to us. For example, many apples dropped on heads before one hit Isaac Newton and set him wondering why apples only fall down—not up, out, or sideways. He considered, tested, and established the irrefutable Laws of Motion.

Other breakthroughs come from wondering about everyday events. Consider Levi Budd, a six-year-old Canadian boy, who recently birthed a new word category by what he noticed riding in a car with his mom. At a stop sign, he realized the word “stop” spelled backwards becomes “pots.” He asked his mom what they call a word that becomes another when spelled backwards. She searched and found there was no term, so Levi invented one. The “levidrome” (pronounced “leh-vee-drome”) was born, a word becoming a new one if spelled backwards. When Canada’s Toronto-Star newspaper reported the story, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary paid attention, and say they say they will include his word in their next edition.

Now it’s your turn. If you could create any new word, or invention, story line, or innovation, what would it be and what would it accomplish?

We know that not everything that needs to be written or invented has been, so the world needs us all to get busy. Most of all, have a very Happy New Year, and have fun being creative.