The lost art of......

thinking.

The lost art of thinking....hmmm sounds like a great topic to post to your blog. Yet, try wrapping your brain around it and everything fizzles.


It all started because I got a gift card to a bookstore for Father's Day. And even though I like to read I couldn't think of a book I wanted. Sure I could go and browse and see if something would catch my attention, but I didn't even have a starting point. Should I go for a novel,a history book, biography, or what. The last book I bought was a short book about T Roosevelt and the 1912 election and it was a short read and I didn't even finish. I plan to, ha ha ha.




So it got me to thinking about where should I be taking my brain nowadays. There is so much out there (and there always has been much), yet I couldn't decide where to begin. I googled the best books of the 21st century and got the expected multitude of lists from way too many sources. I tried scanning through a few, but didn't find anything that interested me. I did find one list I liked and it was probably the most subjective. It was the best book of each year from 1963-2013. I am not saying I agreed with many of the selections, but the person picked a book for each year, talked about it briefly, and also mentioned some other "great" books for that year. I ended up liking some of her secondary choices so overall to me the list had some merit. Much better than top seller lists or some random groupings I found.


And so what does all this have to do with thinking? Well it just seems we don't put much thought into many things nowadays. Everything is so ordered and prepared for us. Sure these book lists are just one example, but it seems to be the way of the world. Even if you want to get off the beaten track there are guides and books to help you do that. The concept of exploration is forgotten by many. And this includes thought. Not everyone is going to be a great inventor or discoverer, but we don't look for the new or different. And by people doing that, it would make people think.

Look at E Monk. He definitely tries to push the envelope, but not too many people really know him or of him. We don't look for the bold or new to test our beliefs. We look to the familiar so we don't have to think.