Why Thoughtscapism?

I do a lot of thinking on this blog. Conversely, I also make a painstaking effort to regularly escape from those thoughts and connect them to the vital pieces of observation. It is dangerous to operate with the concept that immersing in thoughts alone could yield us knowledge – whether they be one’s own thoughts, or the shared thoughts and ideas of one’s peers and subculture. Our thoughts about how this world works should be aligned with reality.

The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man. No one who did not have some inkling of this through observations could ever have imagined such a marvel as nature is.

– Richard Feynman, The meaning of it all.

Reality is much too fascinating to ignore. You could call thinking a kind of escapism, an escape from reality. I  do enjoy a good escape from reality now and then.  In fact, I am a big fan of magical thinking! I am a fiction and fantasy writer, after all. I prefer to think of both – of what is real and what is not, and to know the difference.

By thoughtscapism I don’t refer to the kind of wandering mind where thoughts go this way and that. I’m talking about when they make a run for it. The sort of infectious curiosity that makes you go: I wonder how that works. How did they find out? What does that mean? It must be… could they have looked at… let me read more about…

I will always make a great effort to signify what is poetry and what is fact. Facts have a poetry of their own, and I would hate to let my preconceived notions obscure them from view.

Thoughts must be fed, and that food should consist of evidence as well as free association. I care for the world that we live in, so I look for evidence there. Breaking down frameworks of thought, however inherently beautiful or satisfying, depending on the support or rejection of them in the observable world is a small price to pay for understanding. Understanding comes with all kinds of other perks.

This place is where I escape to with my thoughts. Where I organise them, exercise clarity and conclusion, and sort out the parts that could be useful for later. That may include thinking about topics where thoughts seem to be escaping the heads that should be thinking them.

I love categorising and collecting information, evidence, and insights into useful sets, and if these compilations and my presentation of them may be of use to you, I am happy.

Why thoughtscapism? I just couldn’t narrow it down to much less than thinking. Landscapes of my thought range from natural science, social and behavioural sciences, literature, and arts.

I am, therefore I think.