२ सप्टेंबर, २०२१

"Some internal thinking can be detrimental, especially the churning, ruminative sort often associated with depression and anxiety."

"Try instead to cultivate what psychologists call freely moving thoughts. Such nimble thinking might start with a yearning to see your grandmother, then careen to that feeling you get when looking down at clouds from an airplane, and then suddenly you’re pondering how deep you’d have to bore into the earth below your feet before you hit magma. Research suggests that people who do more of that type of mind-wandering are happier. Facilitate unconstrained thinking by engaging in an easy, repetitive activity like walking; avoid it during riskier undertakings like driving."

It's funny that walking, that is, physically wandering, helps the mind wander. That makes me think of one of my favorite songs, "I Wonder as I Wander" — sung here by the man who wrote it, John Jacob Niles. And there it is, the mind wandering once again, and I'm not even walking. Just blogging, not slogging. Tripping along.

I like walking, but I find I get my best mind wandering done while running. I do 1.6 miles at sunrise nearly every day, and I like the quality of thinking that happens with that activity — at that time of day, in that setting. If I start thinking about, say, a movie I just watched — e.g., today, "Little Murders" — I can access all sorts of ideas about it and tangential to it. 

Maybe I could do even better mind wandering while walking, but there's so much mind space in walking that I use an audiobook to fill it up. I rarely use headphones while running, but I nearly always use headphones while walking alone (and conversation when walking not alone). Maybe I should leave the headphones out — they're fixing 2 holes that stop my mind from wandering. 

The other thing I do for exercise lately is mountain biking. Now, mountain biking is terrible for mind wandering. It's something I like about mountain biking: My mind automatically stays focused on precisely the task right there in front of me. It's great for flow. Flow, the mental state. There's also flow, the type of mountain bike track. That flow/flow is like the wander/wander mentioned above.

Anyway, here's the original trailer for that movie, a weird and very dark romcom about what happens when a thoroughly apathetic man (Elliott Gould) goes along for the relationship with a entirely energetically optimistic woman: 

 

I don't think there's a better bad wedding than in that movie, with Don Sutherland as the hippie priest:
Why does one decide to marry? Social pressure? Boredom? Loneliness? Sexual appeasement? Love? I won't put any of these reasons down. Each in its own way is adequate, each is all right. Last year, I married a musician who wanted to get married in order to stop masturbating. Please, don't be startled, I'm not putting him down. That marriage did not work. But the man tried. He is now separated, still masturbating, but he is at peace with himself because he tried society's way.
So did I use all the ideas my mind wandered into as I wrote this post? No, not yet anyway. There was that Donovan, but the lyric ran through the head with a misremembered word, "trip" for "skip": "Rebel against society/Such a tiny speck... -ulating whether to be a hip or/Skip along quite merrily." It fits now, though — don't you think? — with that priest's wedding homily. 

३२ टिप्पण्या:

Mark O म्हणाले...

Suddenly, I realize I perfected this wandering in law school.

Mattman26 म्हणाले...

Trailer looks pretty entertaining. Movie worth watching?

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Wandering minds.

Short attention spans are the tyrant's friend -- thus the Grey Bitch sings in praise of unfocused minds.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Mattman26 writes, "Trailer looks pretty entertaining. Movie worth watching?"

No. Though it may help you understand how attitudes and dogmas nurtured fifty years ago led to the Biden shitshow of today.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Joe Biden's mind wandering:

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................what's that in my diaper?

Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...

Anxious people shouldn’t do acid, that’s all I know.

Paddy O म्हणाले...

I call it unknotting my mind, just letting it go like that is so helpful when I need to focus but also amazingly good at realizing solutions or directions for things going on. Not that I focus on those, but as my brain unknots somehow the clarity just happens

Temujin म्हणाले...

I wander with my thoughts pretty much all the time. It's a fight I've always had. Even while working. And my work was sales- doing presentations in front of groups of serious people. My mind would sometimes wander while I was presenting which could become a problem and I'd have to catch myself.

Long morning walks are a good thing. I find that even if I bring my phone to listen to a podcast, my mind wanders every once in awhile. So I have to replay parts of the podcast. Then I wander again and have to replay the same few minutes again or miss some key information. I suspect all of this is very much a 1st world problem, if its even a problem. I like to blame my wandering mind on the internet and the short bursts of information we've trained ourselves to take in, then move on. But actually I've had a problem keeping on one subject since forever.

"Little Murders" was one of my favorite independent films in the 70s. I was a huge fan of Jules Feiffer. I have a copy of that play staring at me from the bookshelf across the room. I loved it back then. I have not thought of it for years and now it's on The Criterion Channel. But, with Alan Arkin, Elliott Gould, Vincent Gardenia, and just a great cast, all around its worth a try. I doubt I'll get my wife to watch it, but I'm going to have to see it again. Maybe tonight. Oh...nope. Football. For the next 3 nights. Maybe next week. I wonder if I'll like it now, as an older guy, after seeing the state of life in all of our cities. Little Murders seem to be all around us and we seem very nonplussed about it all.

Ozymandias म्हणाले...

John Jacob f’ing Niles! That’s quite a wander.

His breathless drama: “Black, black, black, is the color of my true love’s hair”; “Go way from my window/Go way from my door/Go way, way, way from my backyard/And bother me no more.”

A voice issuing from the stuck-shut drawer of a chiffonier in the collapsed attic of an abandoned farmhouse. Almost bizarre, yet somehow arresting. A figure that could be coughed up only from the desolate, haunted Appalachians.

Next up: Roscoe Holcomb.

Iman म्हणाले...

The Wanderer



Oh well, he is an older guy who won in DC town
Just pretty girls in his dreams, you won’t catch him with a frown
He’ll kiss 'em and he’ll love 'em, what’s their age? he doesn’t care
He’ll hug 'em and he’ll squeeze 'em, turn ‘em ‘round and sniff their hair
His mind goes wandering
Yeah, just wandering
It wanders around, around, around…

Well there's Klain on his left and there's Jen Psaki on his right
But Dr. Jill’s the girl that he’ll be sleeping with tonight
And when they ask which girl’s the one he loves the best?
He says, dat fat Yamiche, cuz she’s better than the rest
His mind goes wandering
Yeah, just wandering
It wanders around, around, around…

charis म्हणाले...

Speaking of homilies. Years ago I knew a pastor who took his sermon 'for a walk in the woods' during its preparation. He said a sermon that didn't make it out of the study wouldn't make it out of the pulpit. He was a good preacher.

Kovacs म्हणाले...

I love "Little Murders." So many great scenes. The wedding, with Sutherland's hilarious monologue; Gould's monologue about the FBI's reading his mail when he was a student activist; his attempt to get his paranoid parents (Doris Roberts!) to respond to a questionnaire about what he was like as a child. It's an invaluable document of the 60s, but by no means a celebration of it. It's a very bleak (though occasionally very funny) vision of alienated/repressed individuals in an urban hellscape. No surprise that the play made Don Draper so uncomfortable on "Mad Men."

Kovacs म्हणाले...

Similar to another dark classic from the 60s, also with a great Jules Feiffer screenplay, "Carnal Knowledge."

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Maybe the most '70s trailer I've ever seen...and not in a good way.

Leora म्हणाले...

I think of Don DeLillo's White Noise where one character teaches the elderly how to stand, walk and sit.

Zev म्हणाले...

I had forgotten how endless and talky trailers used to be.

EAB म्हणाले...

I know this is how my mind wanders…I have an unfortunate habit of making a comment out loud on a tangent five steps removed from the conversation subject, simply because it triggered random thoughts. Maybe it’s the opposite of an obsessive mind that constantly picks at the same scab. The friends I have who obsess tend to be discontent.

Little Murders. Saw it at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. They did a series called Fun City: New York in the movies 1967-1975. So very dark. http://www.movingimage.us/programs/2013/08/10/detail/fun-city-new-york-in-the-movies-196775/

wild chicken म्हणाले...

No problem mind-wandering here! It's focus that's hard.

I agree single track mtn biking will do it

MikeD म्हणाले...

I Wonder as I Wander was a pretty good song I/we listened to but paid no attention to. As far as wander music, Dion & the Belmonts The Wanderer is the one I remember. Of course this was Hi School daze when, after reading Kerouac's On the Road, I tried to emulate his journey circa 1959,the summer before senior year.
Of course there's always Whistling Jack & The Happy Wanderer.

policraticus म्हणाले...

Funny, my mind went directly to the Anglo-Saxon poem, "The Wanderer."

“Always the lonely one endures,
His mind anxious, awaiting God’s mercy.
Far-roaming the rolling waves;
Stirring the ice-cold sea barehanded.
Travelling his exile’s path -
Fate unchanging.”

Thus spoke the earth-stepper;
Recalling miseries of slaughter,
Enemies and dear kinsmen cut down.


A man bereft, left to wander and walk and travel, but not to wonder at our Savior's sacrifice, nor to allow his mind to slip from pleasant thought to curious thought, but only to face a grim fate, without a home or a family.

I know it is true,
That a man of real value Must bind his thoughts fast,
Must keep close his heart treasures,
Must think as he wants.
But my weary heart cannot resist fate;
Nor my troubled mind provide aid.


Ah, the 9th century. Good times.

Jamie म्हणाले...

I can't remember if it was here or elsewhere that the host posted something about the internal voice - specifically the fact that some don't have much of a one, to be blunt. I think I'm one of those. I didn't notice it until recently because my mind CAN wander, but I don't think it does so on its own very readily. Since reading that post, wherever it was, I've noticed that my internal monologue is oddly silent unless I invite it to articulate itself.

This is weird to me.

My husband used to lie in bed of a Saturday morning (this is pre-kids) and "let his mind wander" while I was up and doing, a la Longfellow. He a Mary, I a Martha.

I'm not sure how to feel about any of this. I've always been acknowledged as smart - how does that give with a lack, or at least a dearth,, of internal monologue?, Is it just that I find places like this to share what otherwise I would only discuss with myself?

I think I've gone very meta here.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

this helps.
He found his mommy!

deckhand_dreams म्हणाले...

Agree completely with mountain biking being ill-suited for wandering minds. My most recent crash involved my attention drifting off, a blind corner, and being startled by a one wheeled hover board with rider completed padded up and wearing a full-face helmet (is this just a California thing?) -- I veered off into the loose dirt on the shoulder with front wheel washing out (the hover board rider had the decency to stop and ask if I was okay).

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

I watched Little Murders during COVID. It seemed very disjointed. The best part was Elliot Gould's character going back to visit his parents, psychoanalysts whose every word spoken was a reference to analytic theory.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"John Jacob f’ing Niles! ... His breathless drama: “Black, black, black, is the color of my true love’s hair”; “Go way from my window/Go way from my door/Go way, way, way from my backyard/And bother me no more.” A voice issuing from the stuck-shut drawer of a chiffonier in the collapsed attic of an abandoned farmhouse. Almost bizarre, yet somehow arresting. A figure that could be coughed up only from the desolate, haunted Appalachians."

Yes. Thanks for writing that. I remember how I felt when I first discovered him. So weird and deep. You wonder: Where did *that* come from? How does that happen?!

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"I love "Little Murders." So many great scenes. The wedding, with Sutherland's hilarious monologue; Gould's monologue about the FBI's reading his mail when he was a student activist; his attempt to get his paranoid parents (Doris Roberts!) to respond to a questionnaire about what he was like as a child."

Ah, yes. The Sutherland part is unforgettable, but the other 2 things you mention are relatively minor and could be forgotten, but now that you mention, they were very interesting. The thing with his parents was excellent (and quite a contrast to her parents).

If people are wondering whether to watch this movie, I would recommend that they not just casually watch it. Be ready for something truly unusual, a surreal amplification of life in NYC. It's not romcom night! If you want likable characters, it would be a huge mistake to pick this movie. You have to want to think about whether there's something terribly, terribly wrong with human beings.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"I'm not sure how to feel about any of this. I've always been acknowledged as smart - how does that give with a lack, or at least a dearth, of internal monologue?"

You have the kind of mind you have, so you should honor yourself as you are. Be glad you're not troubled with the brooding, repetitive thoughts that churn away and won't shut up.

I've heard that some people feel that they are hearing their own voice in their head talking to them just as clearly as if they were speaking out loud in a conversation.

I don't think that's what most people feel, but it's really hard to convey to another person what your own thinking sounds like. When you speak out loud or write, it changes the thoughts.

I think it's similar to the way dreams are not like movies.

Koot Katmandu म्हणाले...

Yeah I like mind wandering too. I walk the dog every morning for an hour or so. My wanders all over the place. Recently I have tried meditating afterward. I try sitting cross leg for a few minutes and let my mind go blank. No go on the blank mind as of yet.

I am 67 and it is surprisingly hard to sit in the cross leg easy pose. I can now do it for 15 min or so but still have a wandering mind. Perhaps as it gets easier to sit I can go blank?

I think next time I will listen to the wandering star song from Lee Marvin. I like it and wandering I guess.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"My most recent crash involved my attention drifting off, a blind corner, and being startled by a one wheeled hover board with rider completed padded up and wearing a full-face helmet (is this just a California thing?)"

Wow! A hover board on a mountain bike trail. That seems crazy. I have seen unicyclists on mountain bike trails, though. I respect that!

Koot Katmandu म्हणाले...

Yeah I like mind wandering too. I walk the dog every morning for an hour or so. My wanders all over the place. Recently I have tried meditating afterward. I try sitting cross leg for a few minutes and let my mind go blank. No go on the blank mind as of yet.

I am 67 and it is surprisingly hard to sit in the cross leg easy pose. I can now do it for 15 min or so but still have a wandering mind. Perhaps as it gets easier to sit I can go blank?

I think next time I will listen to the wandering star song from Lee Marvin. I like it and wandering I guess.

John Holland म्हणाले...

John Jacob Niles is like the last echo of what Greil Marcus called the Old, Weird America. Utterly compelling, though my friends laughed out loud the first time they heard him sing. "What the hell is that?" and not in a friendly way.

This is actually the first I've heard of a movie version of Little Murders! It kinda blows my mind that I didn't know about it (I'm pretty sure my parents were involved in a production of the play at their local theatre group) , but it obviously wasn't very successful. I remember reading long interviews of both Sutherland and Gould in Playboy magazine, and I don't think they mentioned it, even though both talked a lot about that other, much more famous movie they made together.

I can see, in my own wandering mind's eye, a married couple from the mid-west, sitting in a movie theater in 1971, waiting for a screening of, say, Airport or Fiddler on the Roof. Suddenly this "Little Murders" trailer comes on. At the end, the wife leans over to the husband and says, "Let's not go to New York this summer. Let's go to Chicago instead."

Richard Aubrey म्हणाले...

I value situational awareness. Hate to be surprised when I'm out. Mind wanderers bump into things, or things bump into them.

Do the benefits of mind wandering accrue if you have to make a positive effort to do it? Or only if you relax and allow it?