Thoughts About Thinking

The world moves at such a fast pace most people have little time to think. And think little we do. Everything is presented to us in neatly packaged sound bites or video clips that both pluck our emotion and predict our response.

"Welcome to McDonald's, can I help you?"
"Yes, I'll take 2 Big Macs, small fries, a Coke and a bag of McThoughts."
"Will those be Conservative McThoughts, or do you want the Liberal Special?"
"Is it possible to get a combination of the Conservative Pro Life and Liberal Anti-War McThoughts and hold anything that looks like Socialism?"
"No, Sir. You might want to try Burger King."

USA Today, CNN Headline News, MSN, Twitter, Blogs and more feed us with a fortune cookie view of the world. Aristotle's legacy is safe; none of us have the time for thought.

Well, almost none of us. Having quit my job, I actually have a lot of time to think. So far what I have found is thinking is hard. In fact, it's harder than working. At work stuff just happens and normally it happens faster than you plan so hence, you have no time to think. But when you clear the desk of demands from the boss and complaints from the customer, well, your left to stimulate your own mind. Depending on your IQ, this can be disappointing.

Yesterday, I bought a copy of the NY Times to really dig into the issues of the day. Is the Swine Flu a credible pandemic threat? Will the Taliban ever get their dirty hands on the Pakistani nukes? How is it possible to make a claim of spending cuts after passing an increased budget? Well, I started to read the articles, but man they've got way too many words in The Times. I'm accustomed to reading 2, 3 maybe even 4 paragraphs to form my opinion, but these haughty writers go on for column after column and then off onto another page. Who has the time to write such lengthy stories, never mind read them.

Today I went back to the USA Today. Did you know they have a fun-filled family rattlesnake roundup in Mangum, Oklahoma each May? You must have heard about the couple arrested for having sex on the lawn of Windsor Castle? On a sad note, Wizard of Oz' munchkin, Mickey Carroll died. By the way, tomorrow they are expecting morning showers in Kansas City.

Gosh, that felt good...and so...mindless.

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