Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Sleepwalking through life

Yesterday at work I was reading a paper, and I came across some familiar assertions. They were familiar, but in the current context and times, no longer relevant. I realized that the author of the paper had been sleepwalking through old ideas as he was writing it - he wasn't really present, he wasn't really thinking. Maybe his complacency had gotten the best of him - he was so sure of himself and his ideas that he had seized thinking. If you think you know something, there's no way to learn it. Then I remembered how I missed the Lille station and went all the way to Disneyland on Sunday. And I remembered Zadie Smith's essay.

I think some humility and caution (fear?) is in order when one is thinking, deciding, writing, living. That slows our pace... but maybe it's a price worth paying... not to miss the stations.

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