Opus 2025-117: Early Warning Signs

Ladies, I’m here to tell you it starts early.  This morning after spending the night with us, my grandson was in the living room playing with his Legos.  Now that involves a speaking part, moving things around and making the noises of engines and rifling through piles of little color blocks, a very energetic time.

Then everything stops.  This is the warning sign I’m talking about.  I watch the boy.  He sits there for a long period of time, not moving, staring vacantly into the distance.  After a while, I ask him what he’s doing.  If he were older I might ask him what he’s thinking.  If he were older, he would tell me, “Nothing.”

You may think your husband is the only one that does this.  It seems to be a common male trait.

I think all of the great philosophers spent a long time sitting staring at nothing.  Picture Socrates, looking at the wall.  Imagine Plato staring at shadows.  Can’t you just picture Mrs. Aristotle saying what do you thinking about?  She would be no more satisfied with the answer then you ladies are today.  He would answer dismissively, “Nothing.”

It’s even possible that he wasn’t thinking about anything.  True creativity comes as it did to God as He created the heavens and the Earth, ex nihilo.  It’s part of being created in God’s image.  The juices cheer quietly in your stomach.  The blood pumps out of sight.  Air goes in and out of your lungs.  And metabolism happens.   

So don’t interrupt.  Or if you do, don’t be disappointed if the answer is simply the fertilizer for a great thought of the future.  Every man is a philosopher.  Every woman thinks there’s nothing there, and to a degree, they are right.

homo unius libri