Inside My Head

Given the triumphant academic setting here An obvious question is how much of this work Of adjusting our default setting Involves actual knowledge or intellect This question gets very tricky Probably the most dangerous thing about an academic education At least in my own case Is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff To get lost in abstract arguments inside my head Instead of simply paying attention To what is going on right in front of me Paying attention to what is going on Inside me As I'm sure you guys know by now It is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive Instead of getting hypnotized By the constant monologue inside your own head It may be happening right now Twenty years after my own graduation I have come gradually to understand That the liberal arts cliché about Teaching you how to think Is actually shorthand for a much deeper More serious idea Learning how to think Really means learning how to exercise some control Over how and what you think It means being conscious and aware enough To choose what you pay attention to And to choose how you construct meaning from experience Learning how to think Learning how to think Learning how to think Learning how to think Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life You will be totally Hosed Think of the old cliché about, quote "The mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master." This Like many clichés So lame and unexciting on the surface Actually expresses a great and terrible truth It is not the least bit coincidental that adults Who commit suicide with firearms Almost always shoot themselves in The head The head They shoot the terrible master And the truth is that most of these suicides Are actually dead long before they pull the trigger And I submit that this is what the real No bullshit value of your liberal arts education Is supposed to be about How to keep from going through your comfortable Prosperous Respectable adult life Dead Unconscious A slave to your head And to your natural default setting of being uniquely Completely Imperially alone Day in and day out That may sound like hyperbole Or abstract nonsense Let's get concrete The plain fact is that you graduating seniors Do not yet have any clue what 'Day in day out' Really means Learning how to think Learning how to think Learning how to think Learning how to think Learning how to think Learning how to think Learning how to think Learning how to think