ARE YOU A PROBLEM THINKER?

1. 68

   Gaget Girlposted 16 years ago

   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.
   
   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?"
   
   Things weren't going so great at home either. 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 soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, "Skippy, 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, and she began to cry. I'd had enough. "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, with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot 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!

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   1. 0

      daflaposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      It is a definite problem for me.  I quit my day job because it was so repetitious and boring.  I need to think, to use my mind, or I go quite insane.  Working online writing articles keeps me calm.
      
      On the downside, I overanalyze people and relationships, so that's something I'm trying to work on.

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2. 0

   Ananta65posted 16 years ago

   Hail superficiality

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3. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   I am not understanding the point of reproducing other people's work to open a forum thread.
   
   The least you could do is credit them with saying it?
   
   http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2005/04/r … inker.html
   
   http://raft.wash.org/thinkers.html
   
   Although this one is as widely disseminated as the English one so I don't know who it was said by.

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4. 68

   Gaget Girlposted 16 years ago

   Mark, chill out dude! It's all for a bit of fun! I found something funny and I wanted to share it.
   
   isn't that what the hubber's hangout is for?
   
   

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5. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   Absolutely. But it is fair to credit whoever wrote it rather than giving the impression they are your words, don't you think?
   
   

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      Ananta65posted 16 years agoin reply to this

      The answer should be here somewhere

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6. 68

   Gaget Girlposted 16 years ago

   Of course! Ill do it next time then...

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7. 85

   Jewelsposted 16 years ago

   This is a great piece, Mark, Bob Geiger, where the piece was extracted, doesn't know the source so 'author unknown' until he/she is found. 
   
   I personally would like to join Thinkers Anonymous, do you know of any clinics?

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   1. 65

      Mishaposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      We can create one right here. We'll have quite a few patients on Hugpages

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8. 82

   compu-smartposted 16 years ago

   It started out innocently enough!
   
   

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9. 78

   Earl S. Wynnposted 16 years ago

   I love thinking! My brain is always running a mile a minute.

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10. 82

    compu-smartposted 16 years ago

    Please let me STOP thinking!! Just sometimes!! Please!!!

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    1. 85

       Jewelsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Empathy, loads of it, chocolate on top even.
       
       What would be the 12 steps program for problem thinkers?
       
       1.Admit we were powerless over thoughts - that our lives have become unmanageable.
       
       2. Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
       
       3. Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of a higher power that has more control over our thoughts, even if you think there is noone controlling your thoughts.
       
       4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of negative thought forms.
       
       5. Admit to  anyone who will listen, the exact nature of our incessant mind.
       
       6. Be ready to have defective thoughts removed from our psyche.by said higher power.
       
       7. Humbly asked that higher power to remove any other shortcomings while attending to the incessant thoughts issue. (The line is open - use it!)
       
       8. Make a list of all persons we have bored silly with the expression of senseless thinking and ask them to be patient while change of thought patterns occurs.
       
       9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.  ie, don't force people to forgive you.  They may be in the process of their own therapy as a result of the expression of your thoughts.
       
       10. Continue to take personal ownership for future thoughts that escape and cause injury to the innocent.

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    2. 0

       Ananta65posted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Aspirations to run for president on behalf of the Republicans?

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11. 68

    Gaget Girlposted 16 years ago

    Well... If we all want to look at it in a positive way, at least we use our noggins! Way better than not using them at all lol

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12. 76

    Shadesbreathposted 16 years ago

    I don't think.  I reckon and sometimes muse.  Perhaps a pondering here and there.  But never think.  Absolutely refuse.  Nothing good can come of it I say.

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