SC's comment made me think about this old poster... THINKERS ANONYMOUS 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, " 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. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors... they didn`t open. The library was closed. 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 Thinkers 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. now I want to see how many thought "TA" was something else...... ;-)
