I am currently reading, along with the many other books I'm reading, a book called Coffeehouse Theology that discusses faith in our modern day society and how to balance the two. I brought the book into work to read on my break and my friend asked me a very interesting question. She asked, "does it make you think?". It was an odd question to me and one I've certainly never been asked before. I answered yes because the book does make you think. But the truth it, I've been thinking about the topics in the book long before I even picked it up off the shelf. When I returned to my work, I kept fixating on this question of her's in my head. Does it make you think? Well, I picked the book up because it is something I think about a lot. I pick up a lot of books because their titles make me think and most of them are fiction. I buy and rent books from the library because their summaries make me think and I set them on my bookshelf and call them favorites because they made me think. Each book on my shelf has a story that doesn't consist inside the pages. That was when it occurred to me - every single book I read makes me think! Thinking is all I ever do!
From the moment I was born I was told to think. When asked in one of my course's this summer about a strong memory of a piece of advice my grandparents gave me, the first thing that popped into my head was think. My grandmother has been saying it forever - literally. Or at least, my forever. I can remember her saying it ever since I learned how to form sentences. And I would think. I would think during church and during class time. I would think at work and in my room while alone. I would think as I watched students pass by me in the hallways of my high school and I would wonder how it was possible that they too had a life that was completely separate from my own. There are so many people in the world. Even Winnie the Pooh emphasizes thinking when he sits down outside his house and tells himself to think, think, think. Think before you follow the crowd. Think before you buy that outfit. Think about how your choices will impact the people around you besides yourself. Think before you let a boy become more than just a friend. Think before you speak.
As a teenager, I was never apart of a click or a club. I had friends that were all very diverse. I was an observer, not a follower and I learned to truly think before everything I do. Because I thought so much, I thought a lot about the themes in the books I read and what they teach us. After all, they teach you to think about these things in English class, right? Thinking came naturally. And it is sort of mind boggling to me that some people don't think at all. Some people just accept. They just do. They don't think. They get home and watch TV because it's there instead of exercising their minds. They act out of instinct instead of thinking things through. We see it all of the time. Men and women hooking up out of vulnerability and finding themselves with a child...people shooting one another out of anger.
It just makes me wonder, what would this world be like if people thought their actions through before going through said action. What if people thought about the things they watched on TV? Maybe Jersey Shore would have gone off the air before a second season was ever announced and maybe Katy Perry wouldn't have sold another album. Just something to think about....
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