Thinking is Not Doing
It has been some time since I wrote and when I do, it’s on this day, one of sudden devastation. September 11th. I remember that day well. I was at Changi Airport, in transit and about to board our flight to New York. There were TVs in the lounge area, and a crowd had started to gather around the TVs. Mouths were either agape or covered with shocked hands. “What’s happening?,” I asked. “A plane hit the World Trade Center,” I heard someone say. Surely it can’t be true. How can that happen? And before we could fully register what was transpiring before us, it happened again. Another plane vanished into the other tower. It looked like a sushi knife splitting the tower in two. More gasps followed.
We did not get on a plane that night. Our flight would take us over London and that airspace was also restricted. I think few people wanted to get on a plane after seeing the news. When we finally landed in London, there were hundreds of people still stranded at the airport.
We did make it after all to New York. But it was only after I spent some days in London reading pages and pages of reporting. Back then buying a UK newspaper required some strong arms. Weekend editions would be even heavier. I remember the kitchen table piled high with The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, and even the Telegraph. How I loved British newspapers.
But the objective of this post is to remind myself to do more and think less. Ruminate less. I found, amongst my seemingly infinite collection of random documents, a slip of paper outlining my IQ test results. 148. Google says that is bordering on genius. Snoop Dogg’s IQ is 147 and he’s a wordsmith fo’ shizzle (and yes, that’s in the Oxford dictionary), so there must be some truth in that claim.
Yet after college (on full scholarship). what my mother really wanted was for me to get a job as some important person’s secretary. I love my mother. She means well and is a feminist icon in her own way. Her income as a property mogul paid for three kids living and studying overseas. But she didn’t dream a big world for me. She was projecting the culture of her time.
Have I, over the years, internalised some of her suggestions? Thinking is Not Doing.
