[Anyone] THINKING.....

[totem at laplaza.org]

Read to the end...:0

> Thinking....
> �
> It started out innocently enough. I began to think at 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 help 
myself.
> �
> I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius 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. Leaning on 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 Thinkers Anonymous poster.
> 
> This 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 think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.
> �
> Today I took the final step...I joined the�Republican Party.


      



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