THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: How I'm able to shower you with sports opinions

Surely, you’ve wondered how I come up with so many dazzling ideas for this column.

You have, right?

Umm …

Maybe?

Anyhow, it’s really something worth understanding, because this is a little-known secret of journalism itself.

Here’s the truth …

I dream up subjects in the shower.

Yeah, really.

Seriously, picture me in the shower … wait, NO on that one!

Anyhow, imagine this massive bubble of suds and shampoo, and right then, my mind is blank.

That’s the secret.

I’m not joking.

We all have our best ideas in situations like that.

“When you’re in the shower, you don’t have a lot to do, you can’t see much, and there’s white noise,” wrote John Kounios, a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Creativity Research Lab at Drexel University.

“Your brain thinks in a more chaotic fashion. Your executive processes diminish and associative processes amp up.

“Ideas bounce around, and different thoughts can collide and connect.”

That quote comes from an article in National Geographic, by the way, in case you were thinking I stumbled over it on a web site called: www.doofus.com.

LOOK, IT’S true that a bit of the material you find in this space may have originated in the shower.

For instance, there was that column I wrote several months ago, explaining why the Seahawks would NOT trade Russell Wilson.

My reasoning, while I was no doubt standing under that Niagara Falls of a shower in my condo, was that Seattle would wait a year — until there was a better crop of college quarterbacks to succeed Russ.

What I didn’t factor was that the Seahawks believed Wilson’s skills were diminishing and wanted to sell high; and also, that they wanted as many draft choices as possible to rebuild in plenty of positions.

Maybe I had soap in my nose and wasn’t thinking clearly enough.

Who knows?

(I hope that explanation satisfies reader Duane Martin, who waited until September to call me an idiot and remark: “At least fess up, in one of your columns, and say that you were wrong about Rusty’s departure and trade.”)

Done.

See, I can be humble.

Not often, but …

It happens.

Meanwhile, I wasn’t kidding about National Geographic and this “get clean and get smart” theory.

In the story, several scientists explain our DMN, which stands for “Default Mode Network” — or basically, what your brain is doing when you’re just, like, standing around and staring at the moon.

Or taking a shower.

“DMN is the state the brain returns to when you’re not actively engaged,” said Roger Beaty, a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity Lab at Penn State University.

“By contrast, when you’re mired in a demanding task, the brain’s executive control systems keep your thinking focused, analytical, and logical.”

I’m not sure I personally ever make it all the way to “focused, analytical and logical,” to be honest.

Still, you get the picture.

THERE’S A funny side to this whole notion of story ideas and creative themes just — poof! — popping into the blank mind of a sports columnist.

Really, think about it.

Over the years, I’ve done approximately a gazillion speaking engagements and/or radio talk shows, and eventually, one particular question routinely gets asked.

“How do you find things to write about?”

My answer always has remained the same.

“That’s not the problem. There are way more things to write about than I can get around to doing!”

There are major questions right now, for instance …

• Are the Seahawks dead and buried for 2022? (Start thinking about that draft choice)

• If the Mariners crawl into the playoffs on their hands and knees, will that impact how they play in the postseason? (No, teams can get hot in an instant)

• Will Middle East countries take over sports — like the murderous Saudis with golf (more on that another day), Qatar hosting a potentially chaotic World Cup (ditto), and now Egypt bidding to host the Olympics? (there’s not much to offer, except the Pyramids and that my mom was born there)

• Can the Kraken get any better with the arrival of Matty Beniers? (Sure, they’re not going backwards)

• Will Wazzu rally from the depths of disappointment to dispatch a pretty decent Cal team this weekend? (Yes, if the secondary isn’t too banged up)

• And most important, can I break 90 at Twin Lakes Village this afternoon? (Possibly, if I don’t five-putt No. 2 and lose all hope)

See?

I’ve skipped over all but one national topic, and we’re full to the brim.

There never will be a shortage of things to light up a sports columnist’s fingers.

I still plan to take showers, though.

Friends are important.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published weekly during the season, beginning in October.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”