I’d be obfuscating – okay, lying – if I said I weren’t watching the stock market AGAIN today, even though my “money” (like the quotes? that’s a new addition) remains for the most part in the same old mutual funds, melting a little more each day even as I repeat the mantra, “this is no time to sell. this is…”

But for a couple of days I KNEW NOTHING.

Yes, yes, it’s important to stay aware of what’s happening around us right now, including the quaking economy and the this-is-getting-really-personal presidential election. But I escaped it for the weekend by neither looking at a newspaper or TV news nor using a computer (indeed it’s possible – just travel to the middle of a large lake in a good sailboat and forget that Palin is hinting that Obama is a terrorist, and that one’s theoretical retirement is looking like a shrinking speck on a distant horizon).

Guess what? IT FELT GOOD not to know. And this is being said by a news-junkie-don’t-call-me-a-nerd-bookworm-I’m-a-little-worried-oldest-child.

I’m planning yet another ignorance interval. I promise that it won’t be a work day.

I’ve become convinced that the world is spinning into a new era. We’re not fussing about “sustainability” and the environment for nothing. Our kids will need incredible skills, not just an education, to get the careers they’ll need if they want to live in a house, drive a car and savor the occasional Ben & Jerry’s pint. And we don’t even need to mention oil prices. Or the roller coaster stock market. Or the U.S. mortgage crisis.

But I don’t feel dismal. Not at all. I’m an optimist, so I’m exploring the boundless potential of creative, out-of-the-box thinking to change – well, anything.

My conclusion is this: conventional thinking isn’t going to cut it for long. Not for leaders or intellectuals or business people or parents, or…

May I suggest a great movie about creative thinking and quantum physics? (don’t be scared; if you know less about physics than I do, I’d be amazed): www.whatthebleep.com