Thinkers Anonymous

[Clinton Crusader]

Thanks to my dear friend Penny
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Thinkers Anonymous

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up.

Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"

"But Honey, surely it's not that serious." "It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors. They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step . . . I joined the Republican Party.

[originalpckelly]

1. Oh my, it's good to know there are other people with that problem out there...

where do we find out about the meetings?

[Junkdrawer]

2. From the looks of GD lately, you've come to the right place...

A few days of "Porn, Yeah or Nay" posting, and you'll be fully cured...

[DemGa]

3. Agreed

And I can take no creidt for my non-thinkin>> I oh it all to the Repuglican party and you kind folks. Oh, and my higher powur.

[whistle]

4. That's it you must abstain from thinking one day at a time, and never pick up that 1st think

....because it will lead to another thought and another thought and another thought and pretty soon you'll be thinking like an out of control liberal. :crazy: :silly:

[midnight]

5. The non thinking party-the republican party. Well when your

comfortable you have nothing to think about. I guess your comfort is in direct proportion to your thinking. The less you think the more comfortable you are. Damn! That explains so much now. Let me refrase this. Since the election re-count was stopped by the supreme court I have been thinking very hard. I was thinking I was the only one.