Re: Thinking


"Frank Reid" <reid_francis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1132926251.720803.297320@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>I was a lot like you: carefree, happy and blissful. This was before my
> life took a tragic turn, a turn which I sense you are on the verge of
> taking. There is no help for me, unfortunately, but perhaps my story
> will prevent you from falling into the abyss into which I have been
> thrown.
>
> It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties, now and
> then, just to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to
> another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.
> I began to think alone. To relax, I told myself, even though I knew it
> wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and
> finally, I was thinking all the time.
>
> I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't
> mix, but I couldn't stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime
> so I could read Kafka and Thoreau. I would return to the office dizzied
> and confused, asking, "What IS it exactly we are doing here?".
>
> Things weren't going so great at home, either. One evening I had turned
> off the TV, and asked my wife "What is the meaning of life?". She spent
> the night at her mother's.
>
> I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day, the boss called me
> in and said "I like you and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking
> has become a real problem. If you don't
> stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job". This gave
> me a lot to think about!
>
> I came home early after my conversation with the boss.
>
> "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking".
>
> "I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce."
>
> "But honey, surely it's not that serious!"
>
> "It is serious", she said, her lower lip quivering. "You think as much
> as college professors, and college professors don't make any money. So
> if you keep thinking, we won't have any money!"
>
> "That's a faulty syllogism!" I said impatiently, and she began to cry.
>
> I'd had enough. "I'm going to the library", I snarled, and stomped out
> the door. I headed out to the library in the mood for some Nitzche and
> NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big
> glass doors.
>
> They didn't open. The library was closed! To this day, I believe a
> higher power was looking out for me that night. As I sank to the
> ground, clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for
> Zarathrustra, a poster caught my eye.
>
> "FRIEND, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably
> recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous (TA)
> poster. Which is why I am what I am
> today: a recovering thinker.
>
> I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational
> video; last week it was "Porky's". Then we share experiences about how
> we avoided thinking since the last
> meeting. I still have my job and things are a lot better at home. Life
> just seems...easier, somehow, as soon as I stop thinking.
>

Great story Frank. I never knew there was a Thinkers Anonymous. You know
the old saying; "One can never have enough money"? I feel the same holds
true with the ability to think. A lot of people call me an overanalyzer, but
somehow I've managed to have kept my job for 24 years, going on 25 this
coming January. and I've been able to keep my marriage in tact as well. I'll
have to honestly say the overanalyzing has made all this possible for if I
didn't "think" it out, I probably would be unemployed and divorced.

Before the mega numbers with the CA lotto, I thought up a way to give me the
best odds to hit the Super Lotto by spending only $9.oo on the Saturday
draw. I always hit the six numbers, but wishing they would line-up on one
line. One Sunday I woke up and checked the numbers in the local newspaper,
all the numbers were in a straight line, only they were going vertical
instead of horizontal. Today I have better use to spend the $9.oo. I guess
my dad was right, money doesn't grow on trees, but someday I hope to prove
him wrong.
-tom






.

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