My father made sure I was a thinker. In my formative years, he himself was a thinker who constantly shared with my brother and me his thoughts and the thoughts of the world's greatest thinkers. All in the mind, my father would say about anything from a hunger for a chocolate candy bar to people's reaction to being tickled."We're conditioned as babies to react the way we react," he explained with a serious face, nonplussed by my tickle test. All in the mind. Didn't surprise me one bit that phrase ended up being a central theme of Walt Loves the Bearcat.
Maya Angelou once said on Oprah: "The thinker must always think." She's right.
I'm glad my father made sure I was a thinker. It's the second greatest gift he's ever given me.
