The Paradox

satchitananda · Aug 21, 2015

[JUSTIFY]Now I know why everything is a 5 year plan in our home.

Moi: Let us get the house painted. It is long overdue.

YKW aka You know who: (I don't mention specifically for fear of being sued for defamation!!! :shaking: ) Not now. Later.

Moi: The mattresses need replacement.

YKW: Let me check whether the problem is with the bed or with the mattresses. It might be the wood that is sagging". This despite the fact that there are heavy cross beams of wood supporting the wood. Everything needs to be 'considered', 'thought over'.

A very 'thinking' person you would say.

The maid is giving me hell and making me see stars.

Moi: Time to change the maid. (Been said about 10 times at a modest estimate over the last year).

YKW: Wait. Give it some more time. Don't act precipitously.

Procastination makes the problem go away. In this case, I had to send it away - yes after a year of 'thinking'.

Moi: Why do you do such things? Why can't you check out with me if you don't know what needs to be done?"

YKW: Oh, I just thought ......

Moi: (to YKW who is just staring into space) What are you thinking about?

YKW: Oh, nothing.

To give him his due, he is not the only one who has told me he thinks of nothing. The other person who did was my daddy dearest who used to say the same. Many more times than I care to remember. Is it a coincidence that both were/are males of the species?

The bell rings early in the morning. I am quite comfortably in the midst of one of those endless, insignificant dreams which ramble on and on. (Why would a rambler object to another one, I ask you)? I try to ignore the bell and pay more heed to the rambling dream. The bell rings again. This is not the first time this has happened. They never let me dream. People have something against my tendency to dream - be it day dreams or nocturnal dreams. Has always been so. The trend was set by my mom who beat the tendency to indulge in such pleasures out of me and reinforced by my teachers in school who thought anything they had to say about the length of the hypotenuse or the charge on a particle was a lot more interesting than the random thoughts going on in my little mind. I should be well used to such rude awakenings then, you might say. But no, my head protests loudly each time and I wake up to a migraine.

"Go back to sleep" is the useful suggestion by YKW.

Moi: I can't just sleep on demand. Once my sleep is disturbed, that's it. End of story.

YKW: Just lie down, shut your eyes and don't think of anything.

Moi: Am not blessed with a Y chromosome.

It makes my head :spin to think how one can just lie down and 'not think of anything'. Now if the instruction was 'Go take a walk and don't think of anything', well maybe it might be possible. If it was 'chop the cabbage thinking it is your enemy's head', it might still be possible though I suspect I might be delighting at the THOUGHT that the cabbage represented my enemy's head.

But lie down and think of nothing? OK, I lie down.

"Don't think of anything, don't think of anything, DON'T THINK OF ANYTHING" goes the voice inside the head! :boo::confused2:. Somewhere along the line a thought creeps in: "How one earth can a man not think of anything?" Explains his thoughtless actions, eh? But then how come he always thinks something before doing what he should not be doing or 'thinks' so long before doing something he SHOULD be doing?

A paradox that has no answers. Would look for some enlightenment here. Shall not wear out that little brain of mine trying to 'think' up answers.[/JUSTIFY]

Shina · Aug 21, 2015

Enlightening you over such a thought provoking dilemma is an unthinkable task for my tiny brain so i am not even going to think about it.

On second thoughts, i think to be able to not think of anything one needs to have a quiet mind. I think men are better with the virtue of quietness compared to women so they are able to achieve this unthinkable task. I mean just think about it (or not).

satchitananda · Aug 21, 2015

:rotfl Shina. Isn't it obvious why men don't have to think too much about anything? They happily create turbulence all around and then quietly watch all the fun.

Come to think of it, I remember watching this when my sister's kids were really young. The son would do something quietly and the younger kid would get into trouble. The younger one was a daughter of course. It's a different matter that they absolutely dote on each other, but the signs were evident even at that age!

jskls · Aug 21, 2015

http://youtu.be/gjnLLw5BTmc - Satchi this is why... They are blessed with nothing box. There are times when my mind is over exerted that I will not be able to think of anything for extended hours but that happens only once a while unlike men. It would be so easy to get into nothing box if we were men but unluckily we women are blessed (????) to think for the entire family.

parineetha · Aug 21, 2015

Oh Satchi, Is this what you meant my en-lightening? I mean blub glowing :idea,then bell ringing later??? OK..blame the power failure @ home, you cant see the en-lightenment.

"A thought, thought thoughtlessly by one can make another thoughtful person think thoughtfully"…And no vice versa
"A thought, thought thoughtfully by one can make another thoughtless person think thoughtfully"…
So what I’m trying to arrive at is…You have to think..think..think, be it thoughtful or thoughtless.:hide:

kaniths · Aug 21, 2015

Sleep is gender neutral isn't? So its no surprise if there are few like me... You know... Who actually like to think.... Only to realise a minimum of 5hrs ( or 2 at least ) has gone by & so are the thoughts that I was planning to think about too! (If this doesn't make sense probably am typing in my sleep! ) :roll:

Kamalji · Aug 21, 2015

Dear Satchi,

HAHA. As people say, think nothing of this. Arre bhai there is no such thing as nothing. Something or the other keeps going on in the brain, is it not?

Good one.

Regards

kamal

Viswamitra · Aug 21, 2015

Dear Satchi,

I believe there is subtle difference the way men think when compared to women. Like what jskls presented, there is a box for everything in the minds of men but they open it only when needed. They are not connected with each other. In general, married men think that time solves everything. Whenever the box for DW opens up, there is security alarm ringing to be careful in responding and be very limited in words only to the extent needed. DW's mind works only to communicate something to DH whereas DH's mind works only to find out what is in DW's mind beyond what is communicated. In general, women's mind is very vocal, focused and extremely analytical whereas men's mind is silent, not focused but conceptual. Women's mind is inclusive whereas men's mind is individualistic and it becomes more defensive in conversations with DW due to the alarm system.

There is definite difference between real thoughtless mind vs pretending thoughtless mind. Alarm system related thoughtless mind is clearly a pretending mind whereas real thoughtless mind shows up only occasionally. In fact, most thoughts of men are not associated with emotions and hence it is easier for them to forget things whereas women have strong emotions for everything and hence they have a stronger memory. DW's work towards mutually accepted principles in married life because they respect their thoughts whereas DH's are perfectly comfortable with differences of opinion as they don't attach emotions to their thoughts. It is very difficult for women to work with conflict of interest whereas men can free themselves up quickly from the conflict of interest and be comfortable. Women regret their mistakes, repent for it and takes longer to heal themselves whereas men forgive themselves for their mistakes easily even before repenting for it.

Viswa

shyamala1234 · Aug 22, 2015

Dear Satchi,

Hilarious!
Ghar ghar ki kahani.....wrote in a humourous way in your typical style. Enjoyed reading it.
Yes, one of the reasons for postponing things is saying...we have to think or let me think. Yes, procrastination sometime makes problems go away. They look insignificant.
"Not thinking anything is extremely difficult" Better think....it is easier. Something or else lurks somewhere in the brain as Kamalji said. In meditation they ask not to think anything but durting that time every useless thought comes as we close eyes. Monkey jumps out of cage.
I think and think and finally do things spontaneously which is not connected to my planning at all.May be the reason is, as Viswamitra said women are more emotional and men more practical.
Syamala

Shina · Aug 22, 2015

satchitananda said: ↑

:rotfl Shina. Isn't it obvious why men don't have to think too much about anything? They happily create turbulence all around and then quietly watch all the fun.

Come to think of it, I remember watching this when my sister's kids were really young. The son would do something quietly and the younger kid would get into trouble. The younger one was a daughter of course. It's a different matter that they absolutely dote on each other, but the signs were evident even at that age!
Click to expand...

I agree Satchi, how thoughtless of them. waitingsmiley.

Like Jskls says men are blessed with a box for nothing. I would like to think that we are more blessed with the ability to think out of the box.:cheers

And exactly such thinking has made me realise that actually a great deal of thought goes into saying i am thinking of nothing. It is to avoid us women from over thinking over what they are thinking about when they say they are thinking of nothing.

And i still cannot stop thinking about thisWitsend. I am thinking how is it possible to think of nothing as to be able to do that nothing would have to be something that can be thought of in the first place. But by definition nothing can never be anything.To top it all, in thinking all this i am actually thinking about 'nothing'. Are you following my thoughts or think i have gone nuts? Well don't answer that as i know what you are thinking.