The ART of THINKING

5-13-10 pondering brain
Does anyone have time to think anymore?… Does anyone MAKE time to think anymore? Greg sent me this article about leadership and solitude. This got me thinking about our children and the busy lives everyone seems to be leading now-a-days.

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/

Do we give ourselves, and do we give our kids time to be reflective, time to think, time to day-dream. It seems we only value activity, productivity, cramming to passing a test, verses time to “think about things”… time to really learn things... and time to remember things!

A quote for the above article:
Here’s the other problem with Facebook and Twitter and even The New York Times. When you expose yourself to those things, especially in the constant way that people do now—older people as well as younger people—you are continuously bombarding yourself with a stream of other people’s thoughts. You are marinating yourself in the conventional wisdom. In other people’s reality: for others, not for yourself. You are creating a cacophony in which it is impossible to hear your own voice, whether it’s yourself you’re thinking about or anything else."

Some of my best memories in college were when I would go out alone to a hiking trail by the lake. I’d walk some, but often I would sit on a rock and look out over the water. I would take in nature’s beauty and just think… and listen to the ideas which entered by brain. I did gather wisdom then, I did gather inspiration, and often I would write some poetry which helped me figure out adolescence angst.

I’ll admit I need to do more of that in my life now…. I suppose I do get to do some of that now, during my 3 hour drives from DM to KC…. But often it is so easy to let myself be distracted with the iPod in my ear, talk radio, Facebook, email, TV….. and blogging?

Maybe blogging is different, and surprisingly blogging seems that it might be helpful to me. Often blogging makes me take time to think and reflect on a topic, (like now).

Anyway, no real point to this blog…. I was just “thinking out loud” about life in 2010 and thinking about my need and my enjoyment of solitude. My “split in two” life does provide for more solitude than most people get…… AND I do need to use my solitude time more wisely and not waste it away on all the distractions that our culture has created.