I had a thought the other day…

I was thinking the other day that I think a lot.

This whole thinking about thinking business started in the bastion of all good anecdotes: The Supermarket.

There wasn’t a scene or an incident, just me pondering which packet of pasta to buy. Do I go the Coles brand because its cheap and the quality is ok, but then I thought it didn’t really sit ethically well with me- squeezing those other business profits down to oblivion because they can. Bastards! Back went Coles pasta, up came the San Remo, but it had transfats and I need my brain cells to be tip top at the moment- I’ve got a lot of thinking to do! So up comes option three – made offshore with huge food miles, got the ecological thumbs down. Option four was fancy pansy pasta- it looked appealing, but had an equally unappealing price tag. So there I am, pondering my choices. Then this lady comes by, briefly scans the pasta options, grabs a packet and she’s off. No thinking, no price comparing or ingredient checking for her. She’s in and she’s out before you can say ‘but does it have an E number?’ Now that really gave me something to think about as I pottered through isles 4 – 9.

Those of you with children will be saying that’s because she was squeezing the life out of every kid free moment she had, others are thinking, is there a point to this story? Not sure, I’ll have to think about it. But then it happened to me again, this time in the post office with an older man and a post it bag- I’m thinking about whether to get recycled paper? Non-recycled? Recycled-bleached? None- surely we have one kicking around at home. He came in, grabbed a bag and didn’t even stop to check if it was made using vegetable dyes. And then there was the thoughts on cinemas closely followed by Tasmanian bus drivers wages and working conditions, and then there was the series of thoughts about car parks built on slopes, and …

I’ve often found myself thinking about thinking, and concluded it’s a big fat waste of time. If I spent less time thinking and more time… ??? Hmm, I’ll have to think about that.

Then I thought, people aren’t going to understand exactly how much thinking I do in a day, so here comes that point I mentioned earlier: I thought I’d write down a snapshot of  my thoughts that passed my mind yesterday as I walked up the street. The walk was 17 minutes and 37 seconds -I really did time it on the iphone, but I got a ‘little lost/ disorientated’ because I was thinking about recording my thinking and didn’t turn when I was meant to… so I subtracted 14 minutes. Anyway, here are the thoughts of Emily Patterson on the 21st of September at 2.17pm.

….Is the Julia Stone song ‘windy city’ written about Perth? I always thought it was, but perhaps Hobart? – why did I think it was about Perth? It is quite windy in Hobart, nah just gusty. Although that boards flapping pretty crazily- I could be in Fremantle! Actually, what’s in that building? When did we start drinking cow’s milk and who was the first person to think to drink cow’s milk? I wonder what makes people try new food?  I could suggest a graffiti strip for that wall, its really fuggly, would the council pay for it? What will we have for dinner? Have I paid the water bill? Did I send Tracey an updated version of my survey? Why is my spelling and grammer so bad? I don’t even know how to spell grammer…’er’? ‘ar’?  Did I just not listen at school? But how could I have learnt other things? I guess computers help. Will our laptop last another year? Should we get a Mac? Can you recycle laptop components- maybe for the gold? Who actually strips and melts it and would it be cost effective? Hang-on, where am I? This doesn’t look familiar, what does that street sign say? Oh I need glasses, why don’t I want to get glasses? Have I got psycological impediment to getting glasses? Hang-on, I should stop timing, oh no I’ll just let it run, or maybe I should ….

Phew. So yes, I did indeed have a thought the other day, a thought that was subsequently followed by another and another and another. The problem is, the thoughts don’t go away. I woke up this morning to discover that yesterday thoughts were still there waiting to be thought about. Again. Far out brussel sprout- Man that was a good book, I wonder if it would be as good today as when I first read it…

So I decided today over a jammy dodger and a cup of tea to put my thoughts here, in the hope that the internet will eat them!

And yes, I’d like to hear your thoughts on that 0:

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