The Thinker
Larry B. Gelman, Psy. D.
In quiet moments when I am in deep contemplative thought, pretending I have introduced myself to a new imaginary playmate, I increasingly find myself conjuring a brief conversation with Rodin’s sculpture, The Thinker.
While I certainly appreciate that the artist may have been motivated by forces, either demonic or divine, and intended an entirely different “take” in his own mind, as an appreciative observer, my own “take,” I submit, is mine.
As I view The Thinker what I perceive is an extremely powerful figure who, appears “larger-than-life” and seems capable of achieving any goal he sets his mind to, yet remains deep in contemplative thought, ad infinitum.
My self-initiated introduction intrudes upon his solitary introspection and I can clearly see he is troubled, if not altogether agitated, in the way someone is troubled and agitated when they are troubled and agitated.
The interrogatory, which follows, is polite as I advance...”may I ask you, please, what you are thinking about for all of this time?” whereupon, he curtly replies... “I keep thinking about where in heaven or hell I left my pants!”
And when I inquire once more with encouraging intent... ”Where have you searched and, oh, by the way, what more can you do?” The Thinker reminds me, “I am only a frozen sculpture in space and time, aren’t you?”
The Thinker is you, and The Thinker is me, and nothing will happen, or continue to be, unless and until we stop all “the think” and do, and then do, much more do than we think, when we do, we may get that which we need, to be...
I think.
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Author Note: Dr. Larry B. Gelman is a Clinical Psychologist and a Personal Mentor
Copyright © 2010-2023 Larry B. Gelman, Psy. D. All Rights Reserved.
