Profound Thinking
Michael Kroth • December 26, 2019
What have you found to be helpful to think more deeply over time?
The Central Doctrine of Science:
All Properties and events in the physical universe are governed by laws,
and those laws hold true at every time and place in the universe. (p. 97)
I call the Central Doctrine of Science a doctrine because,
despite its success, it cannot be proved.
It must be accepted as a matter of faith.
No matter how lawful and logical the material cosmos has been up to now,
we cannot be sure that something illogical, unexplainable,
and fundamentally unlawful might happen tomorrow. (p. 99).
~Alan Lightman, Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine
Although each of us have many questions in life, such as “Will I get a raise next year?” (Or…”Will I have a job next year?), many of the most important questions become “truths” for us over time, and therefore are unquestioned unless those truths become problematized.
Take singing. Once, in the thrall of a young woman (actually, this was junior high, such a tender age), I sang to her over the phone. I remember “Strangers in the Night” but, really, it might have been anything popular in the day. I sang to her over the phone. Whoosh. Sit on that a second. Junior high boy. Singing to a girl.
She laughed at me.
I don’t remember the details. They are lost in the trauma of time. What I do remember is that from that day on I did not sing for others. My assumption, based on that one piece of data, was that I had a lousy voice. Couldn’t sing.
So, rather, than embarrassing myself again, I didn’t. Sing for others that is. For years. Until I tried out for a swing choir in college, and a kind choral director named John Clark gave me a chance. After that, though I never became a very good singer, I loved singing and even performed in musicals – my favorite of all art forms – and am not afraid to sing loud and unembarrassed in church or wherever the God of Singing strikes me.
One off-hand comment by a junior high girl created a “truth” in my head that modified my behavior or years. It took an act of hope to try out for that swing choir, and an act of faith – I believe – for someone to give me a chance, for that “truth” to be discovered false.
Beliefs, though we consider them to be truths, are at best partial truths. They are, for those who are courageous and inquisitive enough to go deeper, just way stations on our pilgrimage toward – but never completely reaching – the whole truth. If you did have the whole truth you would have to be God or Dr. Omniscient, and if so I would like to meet you. The divine is infinitely more mysterious and even the natural world is infinitely more unknowable than I can imagine ever completely understanding, feeling, or experiencing. (For more on this, see Beliefs Are Resting Places On Our Journey
and Is Your Heart Right?" And/Or "What Do You Believe?)
Even scientists, whose profession is dedicated to questioning current beliefs about truth, mayn't question their own Big Assumption about truth, that there are natural, unchanging, dependable laws. This is Lightman’s “Central Doctrine of Science”, which opened this essay. Even scientists who treat this as a working assumption, one needed to undertake their work, often forget that this “doctrine” is, like the beliefs of every religion, an article of faith.
Ergo, hardly anyone is immune from the security of belief. Beliefs, as I have discussed elsewhere, are both practical (we use them every day) and impractical. Remember the old joke about assumptions? They make an “ass” of “u” and “me”. And, if we aren’t in the habit of testing and questioning those assumptions (which are also known as ‘beliefs’ and take the form of often-very-opinionated opinions), we might never consider that someone would have the audacity to fly planes into buildings.
Strategic planning for our governments and for our lives is all about questioning assumptions and then acting on potential alternatives. We skip that step at our peril.
Profound thinking, like all aspects of profound learning and living, is grounded in practices. Therefore, we all have access to profound thinking and we all can become more profound thinkers over time. If we have the discipline to practice, that is.
This is a big and important topic in our exploration of profundity, which we will return to often. Here, I just list a few practices of profound thinking to get us started. Again, anyone can pursue these and can become better at them. It does not require an Einsteinian brain.
Some Processes of Profound Thinking
Imagining:
Throwing caution to the winds and letting your mind wander. It’s no surprise that science fiction writers, through active imaginations, anticipate – perhaps even make possible – actual scientific progress.
Creating:
Having the courage to make something completely different, to develop whole new genres (of music, for one, art for another, car designs still one more), by taking imagination and making something concrete out of it.
Elaborating and Nuancing:
Recognizing that whatever your brain conceptualizes now is just a smidgeon of what there is, and working to develop more – more historical information and perspective, more ways to conceptualize, more possibilities, more, more, more. What we studied in high school is just the surface of knowledge. Same with gardening. Same with crafts. Same with politics, and religion, and philosophy, and, well, anything we can think about.
Combinatory Play:
OK, OK, Einstein did excel in this – coined the term, actually (for more, check out this Brain Pickings essay
– but that doesn’t mean we have to be geniuses to practice it. As Maria Popova described it in this article:
“For as long as I can remember — and certainly long before I had the term for it — I’ve believed that creativity is combinatorial: Alive and awake to the world, we amass a collection of cross-disciplinary building blocks — knowledge, memories, bits of information, sparks of inspiration, and other existing ideas — that we then combine and recombine, mostly unconsciously, into something “new.”
Combinatory Play – developing and then combining and recombining cross-disciplinary building blocks – then, is something we can all practice. Go play!
Immersing: Want to think more deeply? Immerse yourself. In a different culture. Language (especially a new language). Folks to hang around with (especially those much different than yourself). In a hobby (hobbies, like all good practices are wonderful because there is no end to them – you can never be done with them, never be at a place where you can’t work to become better). Jump in!
Bracketing Assumptions:
The trick here is to become aware that you operate almost totally on assumptions about what you believe to be true. I assume people will stop at red lights. I assume I’ll live another 30 years. I assume my religion is the one true religion. I assume that climate change is real (or is a a hoax). Our behavior for the most part (we do, after all, have reflexes and such), is based on these assumptions, each of which has more or less validity. Profound thinkers can bracket, or step outside those assumptions – put them on temporary hold – to test them, to look at new or different perspectives, to improve or deepen or modify or discard them. This is a practice.
Cruciblizing/Containerizing:
This is developing a place physical or mental where your deep understandings, ones you have built over years, by trial and error, can be mingled with other ideas, practices, beliefs, and rituals in order to become richer and more substantive. In science, this is having deep knowledge of one’s discipline so one can confidently and creatively and expertly look at and incorporate other disciplines. In religion, it is being secure enough in one’s own faith tradition to confidently interact with and learn from other faith traditions. The strong container allows for this mix, this crucible for thinking, and can enrich understandings and practices, and allow beliefs to continue to evolve and deepen.
Strategic Thinking:
Strategic thinking can involve any number of the above practices – bracketing assumptions (could anyone fly over the Maginot Line?), imagining different possibilities (what if the economy were to take a serious fall in 2008?), and so on. Sherlock Holmes famously was a deducer, but was also an inductive and abductive thinker. There is also scenario planning, looking at probabilities, and on and on.
These are practices…we can learn them. Each of us.
These are ones I have been thinking about, but there are more (comparing and contrasting comes to mind as I write). What have you found to be helpful to think more deeply over time?
“In Celtic wisdom we remember that our soul, the very heart of our being, is sacred. What is deepest in us is of God. ” ~John Philip Newell 1
We may be lights under bushels, but we can shine brightly against the dark even if we are mere candles. Together, the light may shine bright.
Silence speaks to us Listening in deep quiet… Hear what you long for! ~Patricia Leyko Connelly 1
"Elegance is the harmonious integration of simplicity, refinement, and intentionality across diverse contexts, combining timeless beauty with functional sophistication." ~ChatGPT Synthesized Definition
Unmade bed, and mind Unmade mind, unready day Night turns into dawn ~Michael Kroth
When I first discovered Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People 1 , I thought the habits he proposed were so simple. They were so self-evident. When I read them, they were so life changing. I remember reading the book and it was one of the biggest “aha” experiences of my life. As I’ve discovered, they are also so, so hard. I became a facilitator for several of Covey’s courses, and I remember him saying that what he was proposing was both simple and hard. What he meant by that was that the concept of the habit (putting First Things First, for example) was simple, and he offered uncomplicated but effective ways to work on them, but integrating that habit into one’s life, into one’s being, was hard. It would take time and perseverance. And, of course, that’s true. I know it’s true because I still have a long way to go on just these seven habits and that’s decades from when I started, and that’s only seven out of abuncha other practices I’d like to adopt, maintain, or improve on. Changing habits or routines is not impossible by any means, but that doesn’t make it easy no matter how much of an expert one might be. We know that smoking is bad for us, and yet quitting smoking can seem impossibly hard. I used to smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and tried every which way in the world I could to quit, including self-hypnosis, but it took my wife to buy me a smoking cessation program based on aversion therapy (I got a little shock every time I took a puff of smoke) to actually quit. It’s been 45 years since I stopped smoking. But I've known for a long time that eating too much sugar is bad for me, and still I do it. And the scale reminds me of that every day. And still I do it. But I'm working on it. We know that exercise and good nutrition and developing relationships is good for our health over the lifespan, but it takes time and effort to develop them. (For some other thoughts about this, see Whack-A-Mole , Sloughing , The Practice of Practices: The Meta-Practice of Practices ). The good news is that the benefits of working on these practices start accruing from day one, even though getting better at it is a lifetime process. Just because a person knows a good deal about something doesn’t mean that they are skillful at it. Someone who studies generosity isn’t necessarily generous. The worldwide expert in humility isn’t necessarily humble. The medical doctor who rhapsodizes the virtues of exercise isn’t always in the best shape. The theologian who knows more than anyone about some aspect of Christianity or Hinduism or Islam or any religion doesn’t necessarily practice the religious virtues she or he has written about in papers and books. A generous person may know nothing – in fact, probably doesn’t know much – about the latest generosity studies. And the person conducting those studies may be a descendant of Scrooge. Which brings me to the word I came up with for 2024 - elegancing. It’s only fair to ask myself, almost-post-2024, if elegancing has become more of who I am and how I operate in the world. How well, self-reflection should reveal, have I actually practiced it? How deeply have I become an elegant person? Writing a “Prologue” to 2024 Judith Valente asked those of us who took part in her workshop last January, “Prologue to 2024” (see My Word for 2024 – Elegancing ) to write a letter to ourselves about the coming year. I opened that letter on December 21st, and I don’t mind sharing excerpts of what I wrote. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-15-2024 Prologue to 2024 Michael Kroth To the Divine Ground, to the Great Vastness, and to the Inner LastingNess, May this be a year of Elegancing, of winnowing out the chaff, and keeping – reverencing – the grain. The elegant solution is the simplest, nothing extra, nothing missing. “Take More Time, Cover Less Ground,” a song by Carrie Newcomer, is my theme song. It reminds me of Evelyn Underhill. She would pick one retreat for a year, and give that retreat several times. Rather than giving many retreats. Cultivating Spirituality in Later Life is my topic. This means knowing about gerontology, spirituality, and lifelong learning Healthwise is my approach – not worrying about length of life as much as quality of life for as long as I live. To that end, five areas of continual improvement: exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotional/social health, spiritual growth, financial/material health. To consider myself a learner/practitioner in each of these areas. Designing my environment to move toward elegance with a twist (a bit of irreverence tossed in…). Exercising daily, eat healthily, sleep well, become a better (husband, father, friend, and neighbor) person, deepen my spiritual growth, and healthy personal financial management. All these by exercising and strengthening values and virtues and behavior that carry out the Great Commandments (love God and Neighbor). To find and practice the unifying themes between all of these areas of life, (Occam’s Razor, the elegant solutions) such that life becomes increasing and simultaneously simpler and more profound. All this to continually immerse myself in an environment and life of flourishing. Michael Kroth, Student of Life ------------------------------------------------------------------------- That’s what I wrote, and as I sit here on December 30 th 2024 these still are values and approaches that I want to continue to build into myself and my life through 2025 and beyond. I like what I wrote then – it fits where I am and where I want to go. But, have I made much progress? But, have I made much progress? What have I learned about elegancing and myself this past year? Looking back over the year I’ve done pretty well on some of these and on some have I have not. One area in which I have not made much progress is in personal financial management. I've made little steps, but it does not come naturally for me. I just don't think about money much, and not nearly so much as I ought to. I'll have to do better in 2025 as retirement hurdles forward me. Regarding the big four metapractices 2 – spiritual learning, embodied learning, cognitive learning, and socio-emotional learning – elegancing underlies them all. That is, I’m working to go more deeply, more synergistically, and in a less scattered way with each of them, and all of them interacting with each other. Carrie Newcomer’s words, Take More Time, Cover Less Ground 3 , is what Duhigg calls a “keystone habit,” and applies to all of these. “Some habits,” Duhigg says, “matter more than others in remaking businesses and lives.” 4 Focusing more, and what is likely to make the most difference, seems like a good strategy. It is probably self-evident, but my curiosity is a strength and a vulnerability. As one who is interested in learning about many things, it is easy to jump from one fascinating topic to another. To wit, over the last few weeks, I’ve started to learn how to use AI. And it is helping me to learn conversational Spanish. Those are two big topics themselves. Oh, and I’ve backslud a bit on practicing Tai Chi, but it remains on the top of my list. And I want to know more about Spain. Oh, and I’m going to sign up for the Osher Institute this next month. Oh, and I can’t forget…. And yeah, I’m going to Judith’s 2025 retreat on January 11 th , Writing the Prologue to Your New Year . I haven’t come a long way, baby, but I’ve come a ways. And I’m thinking 2025 might be pretty wonderful, even with all its inevitable ups and downs. Focus on the present moment, MK, focus not just on be-coming, but at the same time be-ing. (And let's not forget do-ing...) So, to answer my own question, I've made a little progress, enough to make me feel excited about continuing. Even if my practice of elegance has a long way to go, I know a lot more about elegancing than I did a year ago. I’ve been keeping track of articles about elegance over the last year (I used a Google alert, and am beginning to go deeper with Google Scholar) to learn more about it. More than a fashion choice, elegance applies to advanced technology, design (of all sorts), sports, science, software, and beyond. That’s knowledge, which is good. Practicing until one becomes, until one is be-ing elegant, that’s better. These practices start with the smallest, often the most tenuous, of steps. I feel like 2024 has been a time of taking my first steps toward elegancifying the way I approach the world. Elegancifying . I like it. Maybe that will be my word for 2025. How about you? What will your word be for 2025? Your song? Your desired experience? This elegancing thing might take me a while. Like maybe the rest of my life. Sources and Resources 1 Covey, S. R. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people: restoring the character ethic. Simon and Schuster. 2 For a more in-depth look at the processes of lifelong formation, see Kroth, M., Carr‐Chellman, D. J., & Rogers‐Shaw, C. (2022). Formation as an organizing framework for the processes of lifelong learning. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development , 34(1), 26-36. 3 Carrie Newcomer, Take More Time, Cover Less Ground. https://carrienewcomer.substack.com/p/take-more-time-cover-less-ground-10e 4 Duhigg, C. (2014). Power of habit: why we do what we do in life and business (Random House Trade Paperback Edition ed.), p. 100. 5 Carrie Newcomer, You Can Do this Hard Thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRGnftH_g4I Retreat Information To sign up for Judith’s January 11 th retreat, check it out here: Writing the Prologue to Your New Year
Illustration created by Michael Kroth, with the assistance of OpenAI's DALL-E Tool (my FIRST SECOND using AI!)
