Pillows | Philosophy in anything

You know when you're bored and have no inspiration to do anything productive and don't know how to spend the day and you just go for it and start to analyze the fundamental nature of basic everyday objects? No? Okay.

That's what we're going to do today, though. We're going to analyze an object that was hanging out with its peeps on my bed when I happened to glance at it. One of my pillows - a throw pillow, to be specific.

Pillows are great, first of all, for creativity and outside-the-box-thinking exercises. Open a text document, set a timer for 2 minutes, and type down as many uses for a pillow as you can before the timer rings. The last ones you'll have written down are the most innovative of the bunch.

Secondly, pillows can be used to

place behind your back for support when sitting,
place under your head for comfort when sleeping,
offer something more aesthetic to look during the day than an unmade bed, and
make a fort.

Those four functions (if you did the first exercise you probably have more uses for the pillow than four) can be seen as metaphors for certain elements in your life. What do you use to support your mental posture - quality time with friends, daily meditations, regular relaxation? How do you take care of your intellect - solving sudokus, reading books about psychology, studying quantum physics? What elements in your life cover up something ugly, yet perhaps functional, and turns it beautiful enough to look at? And what are the building blocks of your mental castle, the brick wall behind which you hide when you need it - martyrdom, taking a walk in fresh air, listing pros and cons?

Think about it. List the pillows of your life. Conceptualizing your prominent support functions helps identify their purpose and usefulness, as well as makes it easier to resort to them in a time of need.