[AT] The Thinker

[bwhdon]

How true it is.

Don

----- Original Message -----
From: "jfgrant" <jfgrant at triton.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 5:50 PM
Subject: [AT] The Thinker


>
>
> Subject: The Thinker
>
>
> >
> >  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
> wasn't
> > 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
> exactly
> > we are doing here?"
> >
> >  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
> 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, lower lip aquiver. "You
> >  think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make
> any
> > 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
> heavy
> > thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line.
> It
> > 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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