A Thought A Day

I find satisfaction in life by setting my sights low. If I’m easy to please, I’m pleased easily, so my strategy is to not be terribly picky about the things that please me.

So, for instance, my morning coffee doesn’t have to be great, it just has to be warm, and if it isn’t, that’s okay too, as long as there’s plenty of it. Or, it’s not required that I continually make progress in my asana practice; as long as I’m as flexible as yesterday, that’s enough. Or, I don’t complain if someone cuts me off in traffic, as long as they don’t run me over.

In the intellectual arena, I’m satisfied if I think one new thought a day. As long as a single idea crosses my mind that hadn’t occurred to me before (or that I don’t recall occurring—see how easy I am?), then I can call that day a success in the thinking department. And it’s not as if the thought has to be profound; it just has to be reasonably original (to me.)

For example, yesterday I had the idea to knit knitted covers for bicycles helmets. I’d call them Helmet Cozies and market them under the name “Helmut Kozy.” (Admittedly, this isn’t a great idea, but it’s one I never had before, so that’s enough.)

The day before, it occurred to me that we use lots of words in a high tech (or at least contemporary) context whose original meaning we aren’t at all familiar with. Everyone talks about a “firewall” in the computer world, but how many people know what a real firewall is? (Again, I’m not going to win any prizes for profundity here, but that’s not the point, as long as some new idea occurs to me, that’s sufficient.)

Today my thought for the day is this one: that it’s enough to simply have a thought a day.

And now I can take the rest of the afternoon off!