Recently a friend described me as “a deep thinker”, which has never happened to me before - that I can recall.
It is possible that others may have thought that, but wrongly decided I “knew” it - a particularly pernicious problem that afflicts many combative professions, in my opinion, and which denied me the encouragement and boost to my confidence that the actual comment did (a lot of people have slagged off at me over the years for a range of issues, which is one of the reasons I took early retirement from engineering [where the criticism included “not being a team player” - when I acted in accordance with my ethics], and is also one of the reasons I have not bothered doing things like trying to write about my specialty in engineering, or about sailing, and so on).
One of the reasons I have considered stopping blogging or posting on Substack is the lack of feedback - I keep going out of a stubborn sense of principle, and a hope that someone in the future may find something I have done worthwhile.
So ... if there is someone you admire for something, make sure to tell them. Assuming they “know” could be wrong - and is likely to be wrong for many women, people of colour, autists, introverts/HSPs, victims of trauma, etc.
There was another comment by my friend which intrigued me and got me thinking further, which was that the deep thinkers he knew usually find a comfortable life on “the fringe” - which I interpreted as a lifestyle with low physical engagement with society (although possibly spiritual engagement, given the example of Alan Watts * that he cited).
So ... I wonder ... does that mean they lived alternative lifestyles, or somewhat conventional lives but with minimal engagement with society (or the combative economic parts of society), or were buried in academia somewhere?
How do I find a comfortable way to live?
If I had no dependents I know what I would do, how I would live (writing, reading, and maybe doing a little woodwork or sailing ... and doing some artwork), but that is five years away.
It would seem I have to find a way to make an adequate income and, despite that, survive for another five years, and hope the damage done is recoverable ...
If I had received such a comment a few decades ago, I would have actively changed my lifestyle then - which is another reason to remember to tell the people you admire that you do.
I would have finished all my books years ago, and people could have used them during the current series of disasters ...
Ah well.
Maybe I can write a book about being an unappreciated deep thinker 😂
But no ... I will continue as I am, and hope to survive.
* For more information on Alan Wats, see https://alanwatts.org/ , https://alanwatts.com/ , “Merging East and West: Who Was Alan Watts?” https://www.thecollector.com/who-was-alan-watts-merging-eastern-western-thought/ “The legendary philosopher Alan Watts is best known for merging Eastern and Western thought, and for bringing Zen Buddhism to Western audiences” , “Alan Watts: The Philosopher Who Brought Eastern Wisdom to the West” https://knowledgeisgrowth.com/alan-watts-the-philosopher-who-brought-eastern-wisdom-to-the-west/ , YouTube , Encyclopaedia Britannica , Wikipedia
Possible flaws
Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:
- there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;
- I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
Gnwmythr
teaching the "good" (balanced positive and spiritually mature)
safe ways to counter the "bad" (out of balance, spiritually immature)
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