I spend a lot of time
alone with my thoughts. Once upon a time this was accidental- I would find myself on a road trip or in a hotel far from home and when my mind goes on autopilot, it reaches out and finds things that fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. Sometimes it’s just ways to fix something or modify something so it works better, sometimes it’s the way people interact with one another, sometimes it’s the way theologies clash or intersect.
I am perfectly capable of being alone in a crowd, and like it, though I generally maintain a good level of situational awareness.
Lately my thoughts turn more to work because of the contortions I must do to get through each day. When those issues are resolved, though, I drift back into old mental pathways, and a lot of them involve the way people are assholes to each other. I’ve seen nearly all the ways someone can be a dick to someone else, and none of it is very much fun. I have some pretty simple answers, but as a Christian I suppose I am forbidden from acting upon them. Pitiably, others are not so encumbered.
Too much cynicism these days, too little humility. St. Benedict was correct to emphasize humility in his Rule. Sarcasm and snark are the common discourse, when humility and silence would make for better relations between men and women.
“Autopilot” is a good word for it. I require that sort of time for discursive thinking.
I run a couple times a week and it’s the perfect time for that. If I don’t get that sort of thinking time in, I don’t feel entirely comfortable.
One of the wonders of the internet is finding out that there are others out there that have the same wiring I do. Reading your thoughts and the commenters responses give me encouragement. There are more like me out there!
Thanks for continuing to update the blog when you have time.
STxRynn
30 minute drive to work daily on a freeway that is running along at 75-80+ (in a 65 zone) it is amazing what you can see. Put some runt behind the wheel of a 6,000 pounds SUV and look out jack.
I do wonder what Christ would have to say today.
Long hot shower is when I get my brain engaged in the morning. Even more important to me than that first cuppa coffee.
Windshield time is a strong #2 in that arena though. That said, in commute type traffic, my mind tends to stay on the rolling chessboard, rather than other thoughts.
But, on a road trip from here to FL? Amazing the detours and flights of fancy the mind can take, whilst the truck’s cruise is at 75 and traffic is light.
Agreed though. It’s a good thing our behaviors are curtailed by His word. We’d be living lives of warlords and serfs, otherwise.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX