Got an email today– you know, the kind lthat’s forwarded with an attachment that you have to open four or five other forwarded emails to get to — the kind that includes the email addresses of everyone on the list of recipients for each of those four or five forwarded emails. If I have to open more than one email to get to an attachment, I usually just delete it all and never bother reading what has been so eagerly forwarded by some friend.
Why don’t people forward the very first permutation of the original email (eliminating the need to open and open and open) and, before they do that, why don’t they delete the addresses of the original recipients. As it goes now, what a great way to collect email addresses to spam!
Having said all of that, nevertheless I did the open, open, open, open thing and finally got to this, which I actually think is worth sharing (in case you haven’t seen it elsewhere):
THINKING
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at cocktail 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 — 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 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 exactly is it that we are doing here?”
One day the boss called me in to his office. 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 employment elsewhere.” 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 thinking since 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. I believe the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.
Today, I registered to vote as a Republican.
