First, even though this blog has no readers, I offer apologies to my readers for said post because it has little to do with the purpose of this journal. The post was about my mental health, and without going into too much detail about so private a subject on the bloody internet, I'll try to make up for it by continuing some of the thoughts I had, but this time, I'll attempt to tie it in a little bit with Ideas, History, and the other Lofty Capitalized Subjects I treat in this space every now and again.
What I was getting at was simply this:
Doing, as opposed to thinking, will help me and will better me.
That sort of thesis would get me a quick F in a class, but it'll suffice for now. Imagine for a moment that in the world there are "thinkers" and there are "doers." Thinkers spend their time thinking: reading books, considering arguments, writing a bit, mulling things over, daydreaming, etc. Their strengths are tied to their ability to reason (often at dreary, tangent-filled length) and think abstractly.
Doers, on the other hand, spend their time doing things. Getting things done and Getting Things Done. (GTD'ers note the difference.) They don't find much solace in letting their minds wander, or reading dry old tomes for their own sake, like thinkers. They just do it. Whatever "it" may be, their strengths lie in their ability to get off their asses and get down to brass tacks, whether it's building a boat or going to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Doers are often highly organized people: to-do lists, calendars, clean workspaces, etc. Up and at'em type folk.
So here we find ourselves, roaming a world of thinkers and doers. I propose that substantial benefit might be gained for both of them were they to adopt some of the habits of the other guy. Doers could gain quite a bit by watching and listening to a thinker; thinkers might gain just as much by shutting up and riding around with a doer for a day or two, getting shit done and doin' work.
Enter: me! According to our flimsy dichotomy, I fall squarely into the thinker camp. So squarely, in fact, that it's beginning to hurt me. I want desperately to learn from and adopt the habits of doers because I believe that's where salvation lies.
This hearkening back to a more old-timey concept of work isn't unique to me, of course - it's been a part of the national conversation for some time now. (Do yourselves a favor and read that linked New Yorker article!) I haven't yet read Matthew Crawford's "Shop Class as Soulcraft" yet, but from review I've read both good and bad, I'm intrigued. But I'm even more intrigued by the other book touched upon in that article: Alain de Botton's "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work." Khalefa Sanneh, the reviewer in this article, seems to think de Botton gives the discussion more than Crawford does, and lo, yesterday I went out and bought it.
I haven't yet begun to read it, and I'll report back when I do. I've really only gotten to the epigraph, which is a Whitman quote that encapsulates all I've said here more cleanly and lucidly than I even could. He ties "doing" directly to "thinking," and proves my dichotomy false. Glorious! I leave you with it:
House-building, measuring, sawing the boards,
Blacksmithing, glass-blowing, nail-making, coopering, tin-roofing,
shingle-dressing,
Ship-joining, dock-building, fish-curing, flagging of sidewalks by flaggers,
The pump, the pile-driver, the great derrick, the coal-kiln and brickkiln,
Coal-mines and all that is down there, the lamps in the darkness,
echoes, songs, what meditations...
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