I think a lot more now. I think best when I am alone and not entertained. Life has become filled up with so many forms of entertainment that don't inspire thinking. I am not against those forms of entertainment, I just realize that they don't inspire. I can spend an entire day watching television, checking my e-mail, reading Facebook updates, playing the Wii, and trying to figure out why the Angry Birds are so angry. That day can go by and I really didn't have to use my brain. In high school and college I used to body board a lot. 
I can remember that the time spent out in the waves was where a lot of thinking occurred. For some reason, physical activity done in solitary seems to get my brain moving and allows me to think. In the last two years I have started running for health reasons, for entertainment, and to challenge myself. One of my favorite aspects of running is time alone to think. While I'm accruing mileage, losing weight, and getting faster, I'm also deep in thought.
I can remember that the time spent out in the waves was where a lot of thinking occurred. For some reason, physical activity done in solitary seems to get my brain moving and allows me to think. In the last two years I have started running for health reasons, for entertainment, and to challenge myself. One of my favorite aspects of running is time alone to think. While I'm accruing mileage, losing weight, and getting faster, I'm also deep in thought. 
One of the things that I've been thinking about lately is some sort of creative outlet. I'm not very good with my hands at creating things, building things, being artsy, or actually making anything I'm proud of (except beer). I'm much better with words, humor, and physical accomplishments. I'm proud when I can be clever, make someone laugh, and pull off a new trick on my wake board. This all being said, I enjoy writing, I enjoy reading, and, as an English teacher, I enjoy teaching people the love of reading and to find their own voice in writing. But...I don't write very much. I've dreamed of writing screenplays, I picture music videos in my head when I hear songs, and the idea of a novel both scares and entices me. I thought I might start with this blogging thing.
To be honest, I didn't know what the term "blog" stood for until right now when I Googled it and copied and pasted it here:
Blog
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
I knew it, but I didn't know the history of the word...I just forgot about the whole web log thing. The cool thing is that I'm way behind on this blog thing. I have read a few from my friends and edited for another, but I've never read blogs on a regular basis. It's also a bit confusing. Why would you want to share your thoughts with random people who don't know or care about you? I guess, for me, it is going to be that creative outlet I've been looking for. If people are going to read or not read it, I really don't care...I want to write and that's what I've been thinking.
Sometimes I have difficulty getting to sleep because I feel like every minute of the day should offer entertainment. I definitely need to get into the habit of shutting everything off, and spend some quiet time. Exercising helps, but I haven't been out lately. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAndrew,
ReplyDeleteWhen I would play video games up until I would go to sleeep, I couldn't turn off my brain once I was in bed. "If only Tony Hawk will score 45,000 points on one continual trick!"