• Town Talk

In a New Yorker magazine cartoon, a few gentlemen are gathered together at an elegant bar. One of them, in reference to relationships with women, says, “The truth, guys, is that we don’t choose them; they choose us.”

The same truth, according to sparkplug writer Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff, applies to great ideas.

In his recently published book “Awake At The Wheel” (Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling In An Uphill World), Ditkoff — formerly of these parts but now a denizen of the celebrated Woodstock New York, asserts that we don’t get great ideas; they get us.

Slim, powerful book

In this slim but powerful volume (Morgan James, New York, 2008, $13.95, 117 pages), the author posits a catchy allegory about the caveman Og who invented the wheel. 

Written in a spare but engaging style, “Awake At The Wheel” is packed with lively inspirations for the would-be entrepreneur. 

According to urban legend, our beloved president has said that “the French don’t have a word for entrepreneurs,” but Ditkoff cajoles his readers to step forward and express their passions no matter what their sport or ballpark. 

A veteran of corporate brainstorming — no doubt an obsolete term — the author admits to having wanted to put together and publish this book for the last 20 years. Among the perennial crop of pray and grow rich and think and grow rich books, “Awake At The Wheel” stands out like a sunflower in a field of daisies.

Hot tamale

The author’s literary references parallel the body of the text spilling into the margins of this work, thereby enriching the passages they illustrate. From Duke Ellington to Carl Jung, Ditkoff sews up sizzling quotes into a bundle hot as a tamale with inspiration. 

Anyone who takes up this book and puts it down without a desire to accomplish something may as well report directly to the morgue, owing to the electricity of “Awake At The Wheel.” 

The body of the work is the story of Og, whose invention — the first wheel — comes to him after much consternation. His friends, family and community are ready to banish him, but the guy perseveres, even to the point of making a journey to see the wisest caveman known to the world existing at that point. 

Ideas teach

The teacher, known as Crouch, tells Og: “My dear Og, you have a lot to learn. But do not worry. You will learn it, though not from me. The idea will be your teacher. And the tribe.” 

The essence of this approach to creative thinking is that the idea will benefit the person through whom it chose to express itself as well as that person’s world.

The author’s stated intention in penning “Awake At The Wheel” is to spark a renaissance of creativity in which our world becomes more beautiful and functions even more efficiently. You’d have to be paralyzed with doubt and cynicism not to be tickled by this book. 

The collection of individuals who Ditkoff calls “Idea Champions” joined the author in this project, obviously pulled together in the same direction to the same degree. They have produced a work that I join with them in hoping will ignite all our best fuses, unleashing a brilliant display of inspiration in our world, because it’s never too late.

Freddy Bosco writes a weekly cultural column for the Denver Daily News. Respond to Bosco at editor@thedenverdailynews.com.

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