Thinking stuff up

Artist, Gabriel Pacheco.

The job of sitting and thinking stuff up can be easily mistaken for sloth, which it resembles uncannily.

An arranger of words, a former of thin lines on paper does not always have busy hands.  That many of my thoughts are bestowed as gifts in the middle of the night gives me more breathing room during the day.  My hands have assignments.  I am not visibly idle.

There is a necessarily solitary aspect to being someone whose job is to sit and think stuff up.  It is not a task completed by committee.  It rarely benefits from outside suggestions.  It is organic, all-or-nothing.  It loathes hearing anyone say, on any topic, "But couldn't you just..."  No, I couldn't.  If I could, I would.

Artist, Pablo Auladell.

At the same time, having the job, for pay or as a volunteer, of sitting and thinking stuff up could be the best job there is.  I've never had one that suited me any better and I've had some jobs that I would say were near-perfect matches, though the sock-counting in department stores was not among them.  No restrictions. no boundaries, just application of the contemplative's long-held traditions.

Some days are easier than others.