Thursday, December 8, 2011

What's in my head... or Random Thoughts, First Entry

My wife often will ask me "what are you thinking about?". What I usually reply is what most men probably reply to their wives "nothing" or "flying monkeys" (an inside joke). Truthfully most of the time when she asks me this I'm either in a daze or focused on task at hand like driving. Many times I don't know what I was thinking but sometimes it's easier to answer "flying monkeys" than it is to explain what I was thinking.
Comedian Jeff Foxworthy once had a bit about this and said something along the lines of most men are simply thinking "I want something cold to drink, and I wanna see something naked!". While I have to admit this may be sometimes true of all of us for me it goes much deeper than that.
I have an eclectic range of hobbies and things that fascinate me. My primary hobbies being things that go fast or generate lots of horsepower. I love cars, trucks, racing, off roading, motorcycles, four wheelers. Almost anything with wheels. I like guns and shooting. I'm not a gun fanatic, but I do keep an NRA membership, I do enjoy reading about guns, shooting guns, watching TV shows about guns. That's no different than I like shows about cars and reading about cars. If you read murder mysteries, watch CSI on TV, read your local newspaper filled with stories about who got shot last night does that make you a murderer? I think not.
I like remote control cars and planes. I like photography and even worked for a number of years as a freelance photographer and journalist for a few automotive magazines. To this day I still from time to time contract as a wedding photographer.
I play around with video editing on my PC. When time and budget allow I like taking on a home improvement task, I recently remodeled the bathroom.
I like movies, to me there is no better way to spend late night on a Friday or Saturday than sitting at the movie theater with some popcorn taking in a cool flick.
So needless to say I like all kinds of things. This gets me closer to my point. At any moment any of these things may be bouncing around my head. I might be plotting a way to get the latest thing that's caught my fancy, a new phone, a new gadget, a new tool, a new gun, a new accessory or speed part for my car or my truck. I might be solving a problem with any one of those hobbies that I've been working on. So when I answer "flying monkeys" it really probably means that the issue in my head might take longer to explain than I have or want to spend time explaining. It could also mean that I don't want you to know what I'm thinking about because you'll think it's silly.
At the same time though I'd like to think I'm a compassionate person and not wholly obsessed with only the things I care about. I might be thinking of something to surprise my wife, a gift or project I plan to put together without her knowing. I might be thinking about a friend or family member who is struggling with something.
Sometimes random bits and pieces from a church sermon will pop in my head, those insights might lead me to answers of some of life's bigger questions. I feel as I grow as a Christian man that my ability to cope with lifes' challenges by seeking God's wisdom might help me. Often times I dwell on things from church for a few days.
Yes this blog is jumping around from thought to thought but that's kind of what this one is about.
Recently I've thought about selling my Mustang. I've thought about it a lot. In a nutshell the car is constructed for the show and race scene, not ideal for a daily driver and incapable of carrying car seats which I hope to have a need for in the near future. It's not practical. However I hate to leave myself hobbled for horsepower and the outlet that the car provides me. What to do, what to do? Replace the car with a new Mustang that can carry a car seat and is far less radical than the current one, this would then become my everyday car? Seek out a long term project requiring countless hours of my time and money to complete? I might get bored, lose interest or get frustrated. Pursue a hobby outside of high performance cars, maybe 4x4 trucks? But that too has drawbacks when it comes to hauling children. Shelf the horsepower hobby for the next 20 or so years until we've raised our kids and their out of the house? What would take it's place as my major creative outlet? I haven't decided what to do yet, but it does dominate a lot of my daydreaming time.
The point of it all is this. In spite of what we might admit to or might not admit to, I think men in general are a lot deeper than just a single track mind. We're just sparing you ladies the boredom of having to deal with all the details.

1 comment:

  1. You should read Tim Allen's I'm Not Really Here. It wasn't nearly as big a hit as his first book, because it wasn't actually very funny. Instead, it's a very thoughtful rumination on mid-life manhood. It's a terrific read.

    I also think men of our age group would really benefit from reading Robert Morgan's excellent Boone: A Biography, about Daniel Boone.

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