Another Week, Another Tweak: Imagine … Antlers!
This morning I went wandering through my bookshelf in search of a quick yet creative tweak to share. There, hiding behind a box of colored chalk was my long neglected copy of Roger von Oech’s Creative Whack Pack
Flipping through it, I decided to steal adapt one of his “Whacks” for a Tweak. He’s all about creativity and inspiration such, so I figure he won’t really mind inspiring me (Especially if I plug his stuff. Repeatedly. Did you know he has a blog chock FULL of “whacks”? Check it out: Creative Think )
But on with the Tweak !
On page something or another of his book, A Whack on the Side of the Head
, Roger asks a series of example “What if” questions, intended to help spur you to better creative thinking. One of them caught my attention; he asks: What if humans had seven fingers on each hand? How would that affect our lives; what would it be like?
Then he muses a bit about if we’d have two thumbs, how it might affect typing, our number system, and musical instruments.
Being me (the overachiever from hell) I couldn’t just suggest you consider a potential finger mutation. No! I had to personalize it.
See, it’s all about the Antlers.
In case you haven’t noticed, my nom de plume is “Deaux”.. pronounced “Doe” - Doe, as in “Doe, a Deer”
It’s a name I’ve used online in various places for a long time (so long that I’ve forgotten why I first chose it). Over the years, I’ve built up an entire repertoire of deer jokes and routines, most of them having to do with I have antlers ( I don’t have antlers, of course. They’re just jokes. And no, you don’t want to hea them. Trust me just this one time, k?).
So anyway…. when I started thinking about Roger von Oech’s “What if” , and spontaneous weird mutations in humans …. my mind (being my mind) naturally (or unnaturally) dismissed something as simple as having seven fingers …. and wandered to .. well… antlers.
What if humans suddenly sprouted antlers?
What would human antlers be like? How would they look? Would they serve an evolutionary purpose? How would they affect our lives, our culture, our fashions? What adaptations would we have to make?
And that, my devoted readers, is This Week’s Tweak. Explore the “what ifs” of having… antlers.
Have fun, and please, PLEASE share your thoughts in the comments. I really want to hear this one!
(And did I mention that Roger von Oech has a new Whack App for the iPhone? And that the X-Ball magnetic creativity toy thing looks REALLY cool and I want one? You should want one, too. Really. ‘Cause if you all buy one, he won’t be mad at me. 
Ok, at LEAST go check out his corgi puppy, Wally, as he learns to navigate the stairs. Ouchy cuteness! I wonder if Wally would like to sign up for Brain Fitness Boot Camp? )
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Well this is a little bit of a change from the topics I’m usually used to reading in this niche, but it’s a fun one nonetheless…
Antlers would definitely pose an inconvenience when it came to most things, I mean, besides being slightly self-conscious when I see someone else who has bigger antlers than me… I think mostly it would be an *extreme* discomfort lol…
Even the simple things such as laying in bed, walking through doorways… not exactly sure how the showering thing would work. Actually, the more I think of it, I think the sprouting of antlers might mark the start of the end of human existence if you ask me heheh… joking of course
One things for sure… I’d definitely be using the sun-roof on my car more often.
Thanks for the mood-lifting post, I enjoyed it a lot
Glad you enjoyed it, Jon! And thanks for playing. As you’ll see, this isn’t your average mind/brain blog - I get even weirder than antlers from time to time
The line about being self conscious over size of antlers is interesting… Antler Envy!
One differences I thought of would be fashion… women, especially, would be almost certain to decorate them.. draping them with silk, having them etched, panted, jeweled. We’d likely see “male antler enhancement” products.
Umbrellas would either need longer handles… or maybe could snap onto the antlers?
*ponders some more*
Tori,
It’s a coincidence that I was thinking of a similar “what if” just this morning — one I’ve thought about for years.
What if everybody woke up one morning with a tail? How would we handle the situation? Would the fashionistas take over, or would surgeons have a field day with tail-ectomies? Decorate your tail with bows? Carry it up or down (and how would that signify emotions? Some body language, huh?) Hair enhancements for scruffy ones? Other enhancements for short ones? Wear it out or wear it in?
You get the picture. Just rambling on about the coincidence!
You know.. I ALMOST did this one on tails!!!
But I didnt have a photo of me with a tail
Pretty cool!
OMG when I started to read this I thought tails too. Don’t know why. Hmm antlers… well I could attach a wireless antenna to it or a radio antenna and I wouldn’t use my cell phone.
Or be able to watch TV anywhere with a satelite attachment.
And of course I someone ticked me off… well I might just pin ya to the wall to make a point.
Nah but at Xmas put decorations on it or bells when I went for a walk with my dogs…
What if we had a choice? (Antler) Heads or Tails?