A thought is not an inert object. A thought is a living thing: it is both propelled and goal-directed. Thoughts bring into being the unanticipated. Thoughts activate neural connections and open up worlds. Reducing thoughts to objects takes the life out of them – stops them in their tracks, unable to continue on their path, and unable to lead us to the unforeseeable.
Through thought, the implicit becomes explicit. Through thought, the explicit generates a new implicit.
To behold a thought, it has to hold still for a while. It has to become a thing. Behold too long and it becomes a dead thing.
Sometimes we want thoughts to stop – but that is a matter of the particular case, not a general rule.
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