Thinking is (or should be) one of life’s greatest pleasures. Most of us have been robbed of that pleasure by an accumulation of stress and distraction — mental entropy has shrunk the mind to an automaton. We’ve forgotten how to enjoy thinking.
Remembering how to enjoy means remembering how to play. Small children understand the principle. For them everything is a toy, something to be played with. Food is a toy, the body is a toy, language is a toy… and the mind is a toy. A few adults retain this wisdom. I remember Bruce Mau, the masterful Canadian designer, saying to me: “I love my mind. It keeps me entertained all day long.”
Of course, we use thinking to confront the most serious issues. In a sense, our ability to think is all we have to lean on. The quality of our thought will determine our personal fortunes, our political future, perhaps even the fate of the planet. But seriousness and heaviness are not the same — in fact, they are inimical. Only when we recover the playful quality of thought can we unleash the brilliance within.