Curtis Klingle

Thought

“We labor at our daily work more ardently and thoughtlessly than is necessary to sustain our life because it is even more necessary not to have leisure to stop and think. Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself.” Friedrich Nietzsche

I find these words to be in a similar vein as Thoreau’s “The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.” which, in its entirety, has caused me no small amount of consternation. It is more important to work long and hard hours so that thought does not enter the mind. Why do we pour ourselves into professions and other endeavors that in the end, make little to no difference in the grand scheme of things? We cheat our families out of the best years of our lives chasing the dollar, what I term, “serving the wheel.” Most of us not only try to find our fulfillment in what we do, but we also seek our identity there as well. While we should have a sense of accomplishment, and even some fulfillment in our work, it should never be how we identify ourselves. But this is in fact what we find in western thought; whatever your profession may be, that is not what you do, but who you are. Were we to pause and to think, even for a moment, I think we might see the error in our ways and make the corrections necessary to put ourselves on a different course. But thinking costs. Were we to do so, the rest of the lemmings might take note.

We try to find anything that will distract us from our own thoughts. When we are not at work, we watch television, listen to the radio, play games, and yes, even a good book can be a distraction when used in this manner. To know oneself takes work, rather, endless labors because as soon as you do get to know one part of yourself, some other section goes awry, and you will have to readily address it too. It is a lifelong journey of endless mistakes, missteps, and misunderstandings, but the alternative is ignorance. Blissful ignorance.
C. Klingle