While I was working on my Latin translation of Spinoza's Ethics this morning, I found myself paying extra attention to getting the right phrasing and suddenly I was transported from Los Angeles to the Carolina Coffee Shop in Chapel Hill, NC. I wondered, "what is going on here?"
We have all had the urge to go to a certain place to work on a specific topic. For me, the study of Latin and Greek is associated with the Harry Potteresque nature of my boarding high school. The atmosphere was adequately still (or boring to most) to allow me to wander around in my head until I found the right word or phrase.
When I went to UNC for college, I found a few places that created the same atmosphere - the Rare Books Room of the library and the Carolina Coffee Shop. It was irritating that I was unable to find more places on and around campus and caused some negative feelings towards the school - unnecessarily as it turns out.
In my morning study, I discovered that my mind will simply supply the atmosphere if I will settle down into my task - a process that evokes Spinoza's emphasis of the associative powers of the imagination in Book 3 of the Ethics.
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