Reflections

Quote :

"A human being sometimes needs to do nothing. He may seem to be doing nothing yet in fact he is tuning out of the outer world in order to allow the inner intuitive mind, to drift and dream. For those that remember, before television and computer games, there was cloud-gazing -- a spiritual, introspective pursuit with no goal whatsoever. I saw myself when I shut my eyes: space, space, where I am and am not." – Octavio Paz, Nobel poet

I ran across this quote in my readings this morning. It reminded me of a lazy afternoon about 30 years ago, or more. Sometimes I miss the house that Bill and I built before we divorced. Not the whole of it - just bits and pieces, like the patio opening to the woods at the back of the property. Here is a picture taken from the living room one Christmas morning that gives a fair view:



It was a weekend afternoon in late spring, and I was sitting in a chair, looking towards the woods when Bill came and sat beside me.

"What are you doing?"

"Thinking"

"About what?"

"Nothing."

"How can you do that? You must be thinking about something. How can you not think?"

"It's easy. How can you not not think?"

"What a waste of time!"

(Betty, I seem to remember a conversation on the old PAMB when we discussed this same thing. Remember these lines from Eliot's The Wasteland?)

Quote :

"Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
"What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
"I never know what you are thinking. Think."


I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

Right now, I think I feel very sorry for the people who cannot not think.

Ann

Ann

I gave up on thinking a long time ago. Why waste the time and energy?

A stinker thinker will tell me I am dead wrong.

Your house is beautiful.

Thinking always gets me into trouble.

mike bryon wrote:

Thinking always gets me into trouble.

Me too--that's why I quit.

Wanna laugh? I worked and worked on my chldren's book. Looked at it until I about burned my eyeballs out of my head.

I sent it off and got a reply the file wouldn't open. To my horror I saw that I had said Dear Annie instead of Dear Anne.

I replied, "No wonder it wouldn't open, it was offended because I misspelled your name. I am so sorry. You are like Anne of Green Gables, Ann with an E.

She has not rejected the book yet...

Dear Ann,
It is a real talent to not think. Reverie is not real thinking. It is more an unleashing of the memory. It comes in spurts, has no connection to worry, just frees the brain of it's history and lets it flow on out to the join the rest of past.

I figured it out yesterday. The story I am writing of my life's memories is just the reverie, the letting go or the memories after all of these years and releasing them to the flow.

Reveries have no order. They just come when you are not thinking. Like a bubble from the swamp floor, they rise and burst and are gone. Perhaps that is the reason for the recording of the memory. It is just that, a memory that is gone into the air of the cosmos.

Peace.

Love,
Betty

Dear Alice,
Do not worry. Eyeballs only feel like they have been burnt out. Get those extra thick eyedrops, blink and close your eyes for a few minutes. DO NOT THINK!!!!! NOT THINKING IS THE CURE!!! IF YOU THINK OF TRYING TO NOT THINK OF NOT THINKING, THEN YOU WILL THINK AND THE CURE IS NOT GOING TO WORK, I DO NOT THINK! Most of the people I know who do not want to think for a while, drink a bottle of wine and sit alone in the dark not thinking.

Me, when I do not think, I dream.

Love,
Betty

What I ran three red lights was doing sixty five on the side walk?
Sorry officer I was'nt thinking.

David,
I like that. How can I use "not remembering"? Seems I've got lots of that available to use.

alice wrote:

mike bryon wrote:

Thinking always gets me into trouble.

Me too--that's why I quit.

Wanna laugh? I worked and worked on my chldren's book. Looked at it until I about burned my eyeballs out of my head.

I sent it off and got a reply the file wouldn't open. To my horror I saw that I had said Dear Annie instead of Dear Anne.

I replied, "No wonder it wouldn't open, it was offended because I misspelled your name. I am so sorry. You are like Anne of Green Gables, Ann with an E.

She has not rejected the book yet...

People can (and do) get very touchy about misspelt names Alice...
The number of times someone e-mails me: "Dear Adbul..."

Of course, they always spell mine correctly.

Sheilag

Thinking is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs and mindless sex.

Ahad and Shelagh,

If she rejects my book for "no particular reason"
I won't blame her.
I will figure she has a very good reason.

i like it when people spell my name 'byron' it makes me want to go out and swim the grand canal in venice and fight pirates in the Ionian

People have difficulty mispelling my name, although it has been typed as Ape. Made me feel like hanging from a limb.

Well I think you're Ace.

I thought he was Abe?
Still what do I know?

I like Ace better than Ape. How about Axe?

David, Anyone call you Dave, or Save or Have?

I have been called all sorts of unprintable things in my time.

Me too. Sometimes in print

Only sometimes?

The flesh still maintains it's discreet charm.