I don’t like being “too busy”. I like time to think. I usually have it because time to think important to me so I make time. I’m an odd bird. Of course I can see how most people don’t have time to think. Work, kids, family obligations, and general chores take up a lot of time and energy. Finding some peace and quite to focus the mind is not an easy task. Then there is the fact that most people don’t want to think. They are not very good at it or find the whole thing too much work. People make their own choices. Well, when blind random chance isn’t making those choices for us that is.
TV seems to be one of the biggest things to lure people away from thinking time. I get that from what I read plus what people tell me. Personally I don’t find TV to be a big a distraction. That could be because I have it on a lot as I’m working at the drawing board or computer and so get my fill of the noise it makes. I’m usually listening to the TV as I work so sitting down and watching with my full attention seems like too much of a bother. I want some peace and quite to get some thinking done and the TV makes too much noise. Noise I’m tired of by the end of the day.
Despite there being the time one of the worst places to get any thinking done is on a commute. I’ve commuted into Manhattan many times in my life and despite it being only forty miles from my house it’s about a two hour commute. That’s two hours one way and two hours back. If it’s raining add half an hour each way. If it’s too sunny add half an hour each way. If the wind blows wrong add half an hour each way. You get the idea.
Most of my commute time is on the bus. The breakdown: 20-25 minutes to get to the bus, 5-10 minutes to wait for the bus, 75-90 minutes on the bus, 20-25 minutes to get to wherever the hell I’m working in Manhattan. That’s a lot of time to maybe get some thinking done. Except you can’t.
Making a long commute takes so much energy. Even if you’re sitting on a bus it’s fatiguing. All you can think about is how much of your life is wasted commuting. You try not to add up the hours and try not to think of all the things you could have gotten done. There is no real thinking going on. Maintaining your sanity takes up all your energy. Escape is all you are hoping for. I was only commuting three days a week and that was too much. You get almost nothing done while crammed into the seat on a packed bus. Them’s the facts.
I used to get in a little early and sit in Bryant Park. I found it a very good park for thinking in. It’s a pretty, sedate, and ordered park. For those of you unfamiliar with Bryant Park it’s only a couple of blocks wide by nearly an avenue long. Eight acres with a three acre open green lawn in the middle. Right behind the famous NYC library with the stone lions out front. Not a huge park by Central or Prospect Park standards but nice. It has chairs, tables, and umbrellas too. I’d sit, draw, and contemplate life. It was never any fun to get up and go in to an office after that. But that’s life. Gotta leave the park sometime.
Without a commute lately I’ve had a lot more time to think. I like that. I never could written so many blogs without time to think. You think this stuff is easy? When my time to think goes away I’m always annoyed. Of course sometimes this thinking is the most mundane type of thinking. For the past week I’ve been thinking a whole lot about getting a new hat. A couple of new ones actually. How’s that for deep?
I need a new fitted black ball cap. That’s not as easy as it sounds because I want one without a logo. The local mall used to have a store that sold such hats but, alas, no more. I’ve been looking at hats on the internet but I don’t want to buy one I haven’t seen for real or tried on. The second hat I want is a new panama straw homburg hat. I saw that on a web site. I’ll have to hit a hat store next time I’m in the city. Which, by the way, is tomorrow. I have to commute in for the day. No time for thinking. I’m not even sure if they’ll be time for hats.
A famous Hat Store… who knew?
That’s J.J.’s hats. One of the most famous hat stores there is. I’ve bought a couple of hats from them years ago. I didn’t know it was a famous hat store then because really, how famous can a hat store be?
Yeah, how the heck can you find a logoless hat? Good luck with that. The only thing I could think of is those little embroidery kiosks you sometimes see in malls? Where you buy a blank hat and they embroider your name or whatever on it. I bet you could just buy the hat and say “no thanks” to the embroidery.
I actually just found a really cool hat store not too far from my job. I’m on 33rd right next to Hanley’s and if you go down 5th on the right hand side there’s an hat store probably between 32 or 31st? All old fashioned brimmed hats and stuff like that.