Tag: overthink

In the Bag

My family traveled to the mountains in the spring of last year to support my son’s college exploration. Once his tour wrapped up we wanted to check out the local scene. (Does this feel like home for the next few years?) After a superbly tasteful lunch we found ourselves in an interesting herbal tea shop with candles, crystals, tie-dye this and that, and other fun finds. My son was honestly in and out of there quickly but my daughter lingered a little longer to find a gift for a friend that was back home caring for our cats and I had to snag a few loose leaf tea blends to share with neighbors. When we were almost finished checking out the clerk at the counter said, “the angels are in the bag” and smiled with a little sparkle in his eyes. I thought maybe he was talking about the energy of angels being channeled by him into the bag. The bag was folded neatly over and though I half wanted to unroll it and check right then and there, I felt I was either supposed to just get it or left the possibility open that he didn’t say what I thought he said. I took the bag, smiled as if I knew what was up, said thank you, and wished the clerk a good day. Guessing my bag would explode with angel energy when I opened it, I decided to hold off until our shopping was done and we were back at the Airbnb. So as the day went on and our attention became flooded with other details I didn’t open the bag at all. I packed the unopened souvenirs in the suitcase and moved on to the next activity.

When we were back home a few days later I opened the bag to share the treats we found in the shop — and lo and behold at the bottom of the bag there were golden angels gracing the crease. I removed the little confetti trumpeting angels and laughed at how literal this was. There was nothing to guess at and nothing misheard.

These days I keep the little cuties in the kitchen as a reminder to not overthink things because “the angels are in the bag”.

What do you do?

What do you do?
How many times have you asked this to inquire about occupation? What prompts you to ask this?

Will it draw you together in similarity or possibly create a divide in interests with another? What is the importance of the occupation of another person in conversing with them and coming to know them? Would you like to assess their earning capacity? Would you like to gather all the ideas you have about an occupation and pin that on them? You may not intend to do either of those, but it could follow your asking simply because of the categorical nature of the brain.

A lot of people are doing a job because it’s a job. It may have nothing to do with their true interests or their gifts. If the person had a supportive environment growing up and the luxury to let their intuition guide their choices, then this could be a wonderful question to ask but if life circumstances have been less than ideal or if certain prescribed ideas about security guided work decisions, this question may be the source of discomfort or gateway to a false front.

There was an article about this sometimes menacing question in The New Yorker a few years ago and after coming across it I began to pay attention to how often it pops up in conversations as well as how much others do or do not attach themselves to their occupation. It’s interesting to observe… and leads me to ask you to consider:

How may exchanges form when you allow overly used questions to take rest? How could you try finding a new way to approach the same old question either in the asking or the response?

There are all sorts of things we each do everyday. Perhaps those seem too perfunctory to mention, but also perhaps they create the common ground that causes us to seek communication.

I stand. I breathe. I stretch. I read. I write. I breathe. I hum. I speak. I smile. I clean. I watch. I breathe. I walk. I drive. I work. I watch. I listen. I laugh. I think. I feel. I overthink. I breathe.

What do you do?