Friday, December 2, 2016

Outside Reading- November 26, 2016- Well of Thought

“If you sit on the doorstep long enough, I daresay you will think of something” From the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

On the precipice of a thought, sometimes we lose it when our focus is distracted and we trail off to different things in our minds. For those who think they do not have any thoughts on something, one only needs to ask a basic question to start the process of thought. For example, if someone says something and no thoughts immediately come to you, realize your emotions and feelings in the moment, and then let them be manifest into thought. Patience is one of the most worthwhile traits to develop because, even when you do not think anything is happening, you still continue to press forward towards the goal. Furthermore, patience gives one the wisdom to understand that trying to arrive at a destination without a journey is a fantasy. Those who lack patience do not realize that the golden idea needs time to develop and mature. People who say that a golden thought came out of nowhere most likely fail to grasp that the thought was inspired by sub-conscious levels of thought and experiences that, just at the moment, bore the fruit that inspired the golden thought. It takes time and tending of the garden for things to grow and develop, and thinking is no different. In addition, I believe most people have at least a slightly skewed perception of thought, believing it’s a phrase or the next thing on my list; it’s more than that. The definition of a thought is any product and form of mental activity, which includes those thought forms not conscious to the person in decision making abilities and rationalities. This ties into the flow experience in which those things that we are not always conscious about, but come out in moments of flow, such as in speaking and writing, are just the same as thoughts, just in a different form. In The Hobbit, the quote comes from Bilbo when he speaks openly to the dwarves about going on their journey and about how to get into the mountain and past the dragon. To them, he was referring to the fact that, because they had a passionate reason for going, in no time, a thought would arise to go about fixing the problem. Thoughts come more naturally for an individual when it is personal to them, whether they be good or bad thoughts. In another angle to me, the doorstep Bilbo is referring to is the Lonely Mountain so, in other words, he is saying that the solution to the problem can only first be solved when they arrive there. Reflecting on this, I believe this is true for many things because it is hard to size up a scene and think about various avenues of approach without being there. In the end, for the dwarves, the doorstep was more than what they were hoping for or expecting.

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