[AT] The Thinker

[Edward Tabor]

Cool, I like it.

Ed

jfgrant wrote:

>Subject: The Thinker
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>> This is a little long, but the last line is worth it!
>>
>> THE THINKER
>> It started out innocently enough. I began to think
>> at parties now and then -- 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 -- but I knew it
>>    
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>wasn't
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>>true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was
>>thinking all the time. That was when things began to sour at home.
>>
>>One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of
>>life. She spent that night at her mother's. 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 Thoreau and Kafka. I
>>would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it
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>exactly
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>>we are doing here?"
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>> One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I
>> like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a
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>real
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>>problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find
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>another
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>>job."
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>> This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my
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>conversation
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>>with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking ..." "I know
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>you've
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>>been thinking,"she said, "and I want a divorce!"
>> "But honey, surely it's not that serious."
>> "It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You
>> think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make
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>any
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>>money, so if you keep on
>> thinking, we won't have any money!"
>>
>> "That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently. She exploded in tears of
>>rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional
>>drama..
>> "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped
>> out the door. I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I
>>roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big
>>glass doors... They
>> didn't open. The library was closed. To this day, I believe that a Higher
>>Power was looking out for me that night.
>>
>> As I sank to the ground, clawing at the unfeeling
>> glass,whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend, is
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>heavy
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>>thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line.
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>It
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>>comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous 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
>> thinkingsince the last meeting. I still have my job, and things are a lot
>>better at home. Life just seemed... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped
>>thinking.
>>
>> Perhaps the road to recovery is nearly complete for
>> me. Today, I registered to vote as a Democrat.
>>
>>
>>    
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