I was particularly drawn to the story I read about the woman who admitted that she had recently been through what she described as a "tough struggle." It began innocently enough. "I began to think at parties, now and then, just to loosen up," she says. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, "and soon I was more than just a social thinker.
"I began to think alone -- to relax," she told herself, but knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to her, and finally she was thinking all the time.
She started to think on the job. She couldn't stop herself. She began to avoid friends at lunchtime so she could read Thoreau and Kafka. One day the boss called her in and told her that if she didn't stop thinking on the job, she'd have to find another one. This gave her a lot to think about. That evening she said to her husband, "Honey, I've been thinking ..."
"I know you've been thinking, ever since you asked me about the meaning of life," he said. "I've had enough of your thinking. I want a divorce."
"But honey, surely it's not that serious."
He said it was very serious. He accused her of thinking as much as college professors, who don't make any money. If she kept on thinking, he shouted, "we won't have any money."
"That's a faulty syllogism," she told him impatiently. He exploded in rage and frustration.
"I'm going to the library," she snarled, stomping out the door. In the mood for some Nietzsche, she roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio. But the library was closed.
Leaning on the big glass door "whimpering for Zarathustra," a poster caught her eye: "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?"
She recognized that line. It came from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster, "which," she says, "is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker."
She never misses a TA meeting. At each meeting they watch a non-educational video. Last week it was "Porky's." Then they share experiences about how they avoided thinking since the last meeting. She still has her job, and things are much better at home.
"Life just seemed ... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking," she says. "I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me. Today I made the final step. I registered as a Republican."
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