#14: Thinker

«Ahh… oui, le penseur!» Those were his exact words. The French security officer recognized immediately what he saw on the baggage screener at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The Thinker is one of the French artist’s Auguste Rodin best known scultptures. It was part of Rodin’s monumental Gate of Hell.

I love Rodin’s explanation of what the Thinker ultimately stands for:

“What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes.”

When have you last been so immersed into thinking that your energy went all the way down to your toes?

I don’t know. This really bothers me.

Because I love the idea. And I am not the only one. Cal Newport wrote about Deep Work . Garry Kasparow’s book is even called Deep Thinking.

So what’s it like?

I don’t know.

But I believe that in order to think deeply you first need to let go. To me it starts with not worrying. It’s about not looking for the answer. It’s reaching the state of not thinking first.

It’s only then that a deep thought could possibly emerge out of nowhere and spread into all of your body parts.

My only experience that got me into a state of not thinking goes back to 2012 when I walked the Camino in Spain. During the second week of walking 25km a day mostly alone, I experienced a day when all I remembered in the evening were a few impressions I had collected during the day: A beach, a flower, a path, a tree, me on the road on my own.

It didn’t result in deep thinking I am afraid. However, it felt like I had found the key to unlocking the door to thinking Penseur style.

One step in the right direction.

A long way to go.