Mindless Activities

I like some mindless activities.  Moreover, I think it's probably more common than we may acknowledge for people to indulge in mindless activities not simply due to idleness, but actually due to the opportunity it brings to think about absolutely anything.

Take for example the following three activities:

1. Long train or bus journeys on your own
2. Long walks
3. Shelf-filling jobs in supermarkets

All of these are something I have some experience of, and all of them I find in some sense either quite pleasant, or at least not as bad as their reputations!  I must caveat this: I have sometimes sought to avoid doing 1 and 3 to excess, but only because I value my time in a way which makes them unjustifiable, or because (in the case of number 1 in particular) you can have too much of a good thing.  I like to laugh, but I imagine I'd find it pretty painful to laugh solidly for many hours.  Similarly, the entire days I have spent on the trains between Leuchars and Barnstaple were rather painful.

What do I find pleasant about them (or at least not as bad as their reputation)?  I feel sure that it is the fact that while doing an activity which may require some physical work, but certainly only a small amount of mental work, allows me to think about all kinds of other things, for long periods, undisturbed.  When else, during our waking hours, do we give ourselves these opportunities?  For some - Douglas Adams for example, or (according to legend) Archimedes - the answer may be 'in the bath'.

In any case, aside from a nod to the title of the 'Cameron Counts' blog of one of my former university lecturers (Professor Peter Cameron), this may in some way begin to explain the title of this blog.  Many of the things I will discuss are indeed just as it says - things I have wondered about while wandering about.