On Active Thinking

            Several years ago there was a tuneful song by pianist, Vince Guaraldi,often played that asked an engaging question:  I wonder how it might have been had I not cast my fate to the winds?  Mournful, puzzling question, but I always took it to mean that the questioner just lived an undirected , aimless life and finally wondered what more he might have done with his talents.  As a curious and interested person, I found such a question a little scary.  What would it be like to live without taking active thought about what we are doing?

             

Skill building...

How many opportunities might be missed?  Would we even know the array of talents we actually had?  What kinds of citizens would we be without mindfulness, and how many chances for skill building would be overlooked or opportunities to bring our generous good to life?

             

A path of least resistance...

Without taking intentional, active thought we might always be “going with the flow” without noticing whether or not the flow was headed down a sewer!  Perhaps too much “default thinking” spends a lot of energy just following a path of least resistance.

             

The happy medium...

Certainly “overthinking” can create a kind of paralysis of action just as “underthinking” can leave us without balance between being always fully engaged and enjoying times of just kicking back!  Perhaps it would be a good idea to find the happy medium that is right for us!  Worth thinking about!


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