This marks another addition to the regular feature here at little Indiana: Indiana Blogs! If you are an Indiana Blogger, please use the contact form and send me an email. You may be featured right here on little Indiana.
Indiana Blogs: You Think Too Much
You Think Too Much is an Indiana blog written by a college professor at a small liberal arts college.
As a sociologist, I’m sure it’s easy to see where she gets her blog title! But when she’s not pondering society and working through world problems, she’s probably got a book in her hand!
Her blog is insightful, clever, and engaging–I keep getting sucked in! I’m sure that you will, too. Without further ado, please enjoy this small town Hoosier writer.
Indiana Blogs: You Think Too Much
Why did you start You Think too Much?
I started You Think Too Much after reading The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. Having had all my writing energy squeezed out of me by graduate school and my first few years teaching college classes, The Happiness Project gave me the extra boost I needed to get back to writing regularly.
Though I set up the blog account in 2008, it wasn’t until 2010 that I began blogging regularly and in earnest. In 2011, I added features like Madison Monday, where I post about some aspect of life in historic Madison, Indiana.
What about that name? Why You Think Too Much?
Well, because I do…think too much. The good life is the contemplative life. If you’re not curious about the world around you, what’s the point? I’ve been told often and in many different ways that I think too much. To those people who have told me I think too much, I’d like to say, what are you doing with all your free time?
What are three of your most favorite posts?
- The corner store and the coffee shop: sociological reflections on place
This is a speech I gave to the National Trust for Historic Preservation Main Street National Conference in Baltimore in 2012. It sums up a lot of what my blog is about—my deep love of place.
- Disassociation and the human condition
In this post I explain why it actually is possible to think too much, if it prevents you from enjoying the present moment. - Madison Monday: 605 Grille and The Great Good Place
A Madison Monday post about my favorite local restaurant and what makes a good place.
What keeps you ready and raring to post? Why do you blog?
I blog about life in Madison, Indiana because I love small town life, love my community and think everyone should know how great it is to live here (and to visit!). I also blog because getting stuff down on a page or out on a post helps me to think things through in way I wouldn’t otherwise.
Sometimes I’m not really even sure what I think about a book until I sit down to review it for a post. Mostly I blog because I want to write, and having a blog creates an automatic incentive to do so.
I can see from your blog that you love to read! Any particular books that have really made an impact?
Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry. Berry is a local writer…he grew up right across the river from Madison. Jayber Crow in particular, or any of this novels or essays in general, sum up much of what I believe about place, people and nature.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard. I could read this book over and over again…in fact, I do. A beautiful, book-length essay reflecting on nature, our place in it, horror, beauty and the meaning of life.
Rural Free, by Rachel Peden. This book is an undiscovered Indiana gem, written by Brown County farmer, Rachel Peden. The short essays in this book are organized by seasons and reveal the beauty and simplicity of life on a farm, teaching us to find joy in the familiar and mundane.
If you could have a super power, what would it be?
I think I would fly. All the other super powers come with lots of complications, but flying seems both lyrically beautiful and infinitely practical.
Is there anything else that you would like little Indiana readers to know?
I wasn’t born a Hoosier but I’m in love with my small town and the people in it. The older I get, the more convinced I am that almost every place has the potential to be fascinating. There are thousands of stories in even the smallest little crossroads community.
The trick is to be open ourselves to hearing those stories, to seek them out and feel their wonder. The opportunity to do so is the beauty of small town life.
Hoosier By Choice
Thanks, Professor, for popping over to little Indiana today and giving us a peek into your thoughts!
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