Is this as good as I get?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Another drunkenly formulated question:

Some time ago I heard some media woman on the radio who was was reflecting on her university days and how much time she'd had then for blue sky type thinking. Nowaday she had a job and family etc. and had no time for just 'thinking' all the time. This stuck with me and worried me unduly.
Thing is, at the moment I'm in a job that allows me bags of time for thinking about everything, and that's the way I've always liked it. I suppose at some point down the line I'll have a more demanding job and family responsibilities to worry about. But I hate the idea of my brain shutting off, or even narrowing its horizons.

It's always irritating when novelists pull the 'I can't let domestic chores divert me from my work' line, but maybe they have a point.

Regular ILE contributors clearly have too much time on their hands, which is great, but is being smart just a luxury of an otherwise empty life? I HATE TRADE OFFS*

*a subject which will be part of my grand opus of an ILE question one of these days, when I think of how to word it.

― Nick, Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I always think having a job will distract me from completing numerous creative endeavours, but conversly when I have the time to do things, I don't. I think there will always be time to think, just find solace in the moment.

― jel, Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I sorta tend to find that the meditative savage torpor of drudge is perfect for sparking more cosmic thoughts. So maybe work has a purpose. As for whether or not life is empty, that's something we all have to decide at base on our own, yes?

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's like the whole Wordsworth-in-the-woods scenario, he finally finds the time to do absolutely nothing but write and commune with nature, and nothing comes out. This exact same thing seems to be happening to a friend of mine who saved all his money during the school year so he didn't have to work during the summer and could just write poetry. By the sound of it, he's not accomplished very much. You have to strike a balance between having a job that takes up all your time and having so much free time you have no desire to write.

― Dave M., Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Or think, I mean. Ahem.

― Dave M., Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick, I've found that some of my best thinking comes when I'm very busy working on other things. But whenever I've had a 'real job' (har har) that involved large blocks of time of me doing the same thing, I often felt too tired (even when the job didn't involve that much physical or mental work - tedium can be worse!) to think very much in my spare time. So I guess my answer is: find a job that lets you be smart, ha.

― Josh, Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I seem to have stopped thinking. I'm not sure why. It's alarming. I go over the same thoughts over and over and over and I don't know how to stop!

It's not jobs and free times that do it. It's always easy to find an excuse, but I don't think that's what's behind it.

― Lyra, Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Shhh... you're ruining my excuse for being stupid.

― Dave M., Sunday, 19 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.