It is fun to think sometimes....

"My head was too crazy. The thoughts bounced around inside my skull like a disoriented swarm of bees. Noisy. Now and then they stung. Must be hornets, not bees. Bees died after one sting. And the same thoughts were stinging me again and again."

Stephanie Meyer, Breaking Dawn



The Mind is a curious thing. This is a little heady, but it is fun to think sometimes and to see where the currents of the mind may take you, sometimes it you are pushed along gently and steadily by one particular enthralling idea, other times it is like a Hurricane in your head, with idea after idea swirling in and out of your consciousness.




One such thought that struck me today as I was reading an online comic called Freak Angels, which was suggested to me by a friend of mine. Are the thoughts we think our own or are they put there by someone/something else? In the story there is a character who can put thoughts into peoples minds. He says at one point that he is giving a lecture on the nature of time in the minds of several, randomly chosen people. This got me to thinking... he was putting thoughts into my head too apparently. Occasionally I will be thinking to myself, but it won't be thoughts that are in my own voice, rather it is like someone else is speaking in my head. No, not like voices in my head, just thoughts that are out of the vein of my usual thoughts. The process of thinking is strange and mysterious to me, that is why I struggle to abstain from it as often as possible. These thoughts, though, must come from somewhere. For every causes there is an effect, this surely must be true of thought. Someone tells you Not to think of two apple pies having a lightsaber duel, suddenly, that is the only thing you can think of... cause - effect. Is there ever any such thing as a truly original thought? Logic would say that there must be, original thought breeds innovation. But does it really? The Light Bulb, Edison's wonder, but really it was just an improvement on the candle.

One day Thomas Edison was working in his lab when he thought, "We need something that can help us to see when it is dark..."
His assistant said to him, "It is called fire... a candle"
"Yes, but I want to make the candle better"
"It is already pretty good, I mean we even have scented candles for when you not only want to see, but smell as well."
Edison promptly fired that assistant for being a jerk, and just to stick it to him, named his candle improvement after him... the assistants name was Benjamin Lightbulb, and man did he feel like a dork.
This is a completely made up, original, story used to illustrate my point of complete non-originality. Edison's idea for the light bulb wasn't an original idea, man has been trying to see in the dark since the beginning of dark, he is simply the only one to do something about it... well, the second one anyway, someone, I'm sure discovered fire way back when.


The more I think about it, the more I come to realize that the vast majority of my thoughts are not really my own. They are the product of my environment, what I hear, see and do. On the other hand, Where I take those thoughts, or rather, where those thoughts take me is completely my own... I think. Just like Edison. Sure, tons of people probably thought that the insubstantial light from a candle should be improved upon, but Edison actually did it. While the thought may or may not have been original, the result was.


No one thinks in the same way, which is why presented with the same prompt or stimulus people will invariably develop their own unique perspectives (or conclusions). I think this is why one person can love a book or movie or song and someone else can completely abhor it. how do you feel about country music in general?


But what about someone actually having the ability to implant their thoughts, ideas, views, into someone else's mind... telepathy? Is it real, is it possible? Probably not, but maybe, let's pretend it is. It is an incredibly ubiquitous idea. In Harry Potter Voldimort uses a form of "magic" called Occlumency to see into the mind of others, and on occasion to plant thoughts and ideas in the mind of his victims that will cause them to bend to his will (whether they are aware of it or not). Professor Xavier of X Men (as well as a few other mutants) has the power influence read/manipulate/control minds, and with the help of his "Crerbro" could connect to every human and mutant mind on earth. He used his power benevolently. I am sure you can think of other examples form some of you favorite books, TV shows, and movies. So, how about it, The thoughts you are thinking right now might not be you own. They could be mine. What if I placed them there for my own amusement? For the betterment of mankind? For my own nefarious purposes? What if it was Professor X's thoughts? what if they are "The Man's"? Well...?


I don't have an answer, I was just thinking. It is a scary thought, but I suppose it wouldn't make much difference to me as ling as I remained blissfully unaware. But what do you think? ... think for yourself

Tangent:

Each of us has a completely unique mind. It is this that has allowed for the Einsteins, and Edisons, and Schrödingers, Galileo, Newton, etc. of this world to thrive. The uniqueness of the human mind has also allowed the Alexanders and the Napoleons and the Atillas... even the Hitlers of the world to be in some sense great, if only for a time. The Builders and the Destroyers. It is said that some people have the ability to capture peoples imaginations. This is a particularly worrying thought if the people who are doing the capturing are of the destructive persuasion. These people who "capture the public imagination" have the ability to put thoughts into peoples heads. Not like mind control of course, not like Professor X (although I think I remember reading somewhere that Hitler did experiment with mind control, good thing he didn't get his hands on "Cerebro"). They have power, derived from who knows where, but it is the power to tell us, the normal people, exactly what and how to think, and we willingly, dumbly, even enthusiastically oblige. Unquestioningly.


That power can also be used for great good. Revolutions that freed oppressed people, Revelations that freed men to explore the earth. Thinking men and women, who could capture the imagination of the world, have changed the course of history, many for the better, some for the worse. Despite this, people have decided somewhere along the line that it is OK to not think for themselves. They have decided that because they don't know something, aren't experts in the field, they are somehow incapable of understanding a concept. They will defer to the "experts". No one can know everything about everything... philosophers will tell you that no one can know anything about anything. Philosophers are silly sometimes (sorry Tom). The fact that the extent of human knowledge is finite should not, however, cause us to limit ourselves in what we are willing to try to understand, or know, or believe. Take any topic you fell strongly about... Global Warming, Abortion, the Existence of a God or gods... or how bout something less controversial, like the best kind of car, or your favorite music. Are your thoughts (beliefs and opinions) about those things your own? Have you tried them and found them to be ...well, as correct as you can know them to be? Or, do you hold on to thoughts that other people who are "smarter" than you claim are the only correct thoughts? Don't limit yourself. Search. Understand, if for no other reason than the fact that you can. Try new things. you like *insert musical genre here* why? Did your friends tell you that it was cool and *other genre* was not, so you stopped listening to it because they told you to? global warming is a problem because Al Gore says it is, or because the surface temperature of the earth is truly rising because of human action? what is it isn't, what if it is a cyclical change that occurs every couple of hundred years? I'm not telling you how to think, I'm just asking that you do.

this has really been nothing more than a thought game I played with myself and unfortunately for have written down for you to ponder. Do you want to know the point, here it is:

It is fun to think sometimes...

...So You Like Plants, eh?

Like so many other children, I went to summer camp for a week each summer during the years between 6th grade and 10th grade. Some went to Sports Camp, others Theatre Camp, Scouts Camp, or even Space Camp. I, however, went to Church Camp. It was fun. The lake, the wacky camp songs, the games, the horrible food, and the friends... I loved it all. I also loved the "churchy" parts. We'd get up early every morning and have a personal prayer and Bible study time, basically quiet time alone with God, which is something I constantly neglect now. Then we'd go to breakfast and then we'd take an unnecessarily long hike to the chapel for a morning service (for lack of a better term). There was the usual singing and campy message (pun intended) from speakers like Brett Ray, who is actually the only speaker, who was not from my church, who's name I can remember.

I'm not going to give you a rundown of everything we did during those days at camp, I dare say that most would find that to be tedious and boring. Many of my most vivid memories are from those days at camp, and many of those memories are of events that were either horrific and traumatizing, or epic and life changing/defining, the latter being largely from the summer after 6th grade... or was it seventh. It is about one of those Life Defining moments that I'm writing about.
One afternoon the counselors had us participating in something of a role playing activity. Any of you who have been through Resident Advisor training I'm sure will remember the "Behind Closed Doors" portion of the training. For those who haven't this is where the New RA's are presented with a situation that they may encounter in the course of their jobs. The experienced RA's act as everything from rowdy residents who are simply making too much noise to angry room mates, to suicidal residents, and victims of rape. The New RA's are then critiqued on how they handled the situation and given pointers on how similar situations can be dealt with in real life. This is all to help them to be prepared for what ever the residents might throw at them. This is also a good chance for the experienced RA's to have a little fun and see if we can get the newbies to cry... it is always funny. It was a similar activity that we were participating in at camp, only instead of teaching us how to deal with college students, the point of this exercise was to help us to know how to respond to difficult situations that might crop up when trying to evangelize.
I know it sounds like they were brain washing us or whatever else you want to say, but it was not that at all and in the end what they were trying to teach us was how to show the Love of Christ to everyone we meet... which is, in my opinion the most effective way to spread the gospel. People tend to respond better to kindness and friendship then condemnation and the preaching of dogmatic rules. Once I finish the story hopefully this will all make sense, so bear with me.

A group of us sixth graders (or was it seventh) walked into one of the lounge rooms where there was a lady that I recognized as one of the counselors, although I didn't know her name... it was Kathy. She looked a bit upset and was watering plastic plants. I leaned over to my buddy Timmy and cracked a joke loud enough for everyone in the immediate vicinity to hear, and there was a low rumble of laughter. We knew basically what was going on, and basically what we were supposed to do. We had been told that in this scenario there was a woman who was upset, and needed to her the "good news". This was our last scenario before dinner and free time and I was pretty much done with the whole thing. Some of the girls, whose nerves and emotions are already a bit shaken from the past scenarios try to strike up a preliminary conversation to feel out what exactly we were up against. They tried to share pleasantries, they tried to compliment her, they tried to get her to acknowledge them... she didn't, if anything, she just looked angrier and angrier. All of this I observed with what I imagine to be an impassive expression on my face, because as I said before, dinner was looming, and I really didn't care about anything else. Eventually the girls got Kathy to drop a few hints, and from what I could tell this was a completely unfair situation. The woman Kathy was pretending to be was justifiably upset. She had recently miscarried late in a pregnancy (either that or lost an infant short after birth, either way it was traumatic... we'll work off of the miscarriage scenario, it really doesn't make a difference to the story). The physical trauma of the miscarriage made it impossible for her to become pregnant again, which is something she desperately wanted... I think it had something to do with cysts or cancer on the ovaries, but like I said before, I wasn't paying real close attention. I was too busy thinking about fried chicken and corn on the Cob. It was then that someone decided to play the "everything happens for a reason" card which even I knew was a mistake of Titanic proportions. Kathy explodes. The woman was an amazing actor. Never before had I witnessed such an outburst of fury, fear, and sadness. Kathy was a small lady, but in that moment it was no longer Kathy standing before us, it was an enormous, vicious, hungry Bear, with bared teeth and claws ready to devour us all. She had my full and complete attention, all thoughts of dinner were gone. She was saying things that no mere words, especially from a smelly sixth grader, could counter, and the character she was playing had completely justifiable reasons for saying them. She said things like, God doesn't exist, or if he does, he is evil for allowing that to happen to her, God murdered her child, she went on ranting like that for quite some time. By this point most of the girls were weeping, not simply crying, serious water works... like a cartoon when the tears shoot from their eyes like a waterfall... I was incredulous. I am not an emotional person, I often joke that I have no heart/feelings, perhaps that is why I thought what I was seeing was so ridiculous (not for the reasons you might think). These girls were not only sympathetic, they were empathetic, they were feeling her profound loss (albeit fake). A few were still trying to say things like, "You need to turn to God, he can help you through this." to which she would icily retort, "Can he give me my child back... can he bring him back from the dead?" To which I thought to my self, "there was this guy named Lazarus a long time ago..." but I knew it would be pointless to mention this, this woman didn't need preaching, she needed a friend, someone who actually cared about her, and we couldn't give that to her. Things began to quiet down a little bit which is the exact point I lost my mind and decided to open my big fat retarded mouth. Without any lead in, and without much thought, I said "...So, you like plants, eh?" Silence. Glares. An incredulous look from one of the counselors. An elbow in my ribs from Tim. A few hesitant chuckles...
Kathy Ripping Into Me. "What the Hell! I just lost my child, and you want to talk about plants!? What are you, some kind of moron?" Here is where I realized my critical mistake, Timing. Some have it, some don't, this was the exact moment I learned I didn't have it.

Some of you have, no doubt, already guessed what I was trying to do here. It is what I always do; first, find common ground, a place where we can both understand one another. Second, show interest in her interests to create a bond between us. Third, get her talking about something that isn't the thing that is bothering her. Fourth, and finally, lighten the mood, get her mind off of it, and on to something that might make her smile. I failed.

From there, things quickly devolved and the scenario was over. Kathy assured everyone that it was all a made up scenario and that she was simply acting. We discussed what people did right and what we did wrong. And it was all very interesting, then she came to me and my comment. She said that I was exactly right in what I was trying to do, I just should have tried to do it earlier... story of my life. Then it was my turn to talk. In the whole time I had been there the only words I said (that the whole group could hear) were "So you like plants". too be honest I cant exactly remember how much of this I told them, and how much I wish I had told them but here it is. "That scenario was unwinable, in all the other ones the people playing them came around to our side and prayed or did whatever... it was a bit hokey and unrealistic, this one was different. You (Kathy) were never going to give in and pray or repent or whatever it is that our objective was. That means that that is not supposed to be our objective. What we should try to do is not necessarily "evangelize" everywhere we go, but simply show the Love of Christ in our lives, or let Him live through us as it is so often said in the church... We went on and discussed this for a while and broke up for dinner.

This is what I got out of that looking back now.
In everything I do, in all my relationships, with everyone I meet, I should treat them with kindness where kindness in needed, patience were patience is needed, generosity when generosity is needed, and even when it isn't (according to your means). Be slow to anger, and quick to forgive. Be nice even when it is hard. Be helpful, even when you think you're the one that needs help. In short LOVE. These are things that I strive to and often fall short of. I learned more than this though. I learned a few things about myself.

• I don't like to be serious. I think people are too serious too much, I like to have fun, and I like to see people smiling. I like it even more when I can make them smile. It is because of this I act like a goofball a lot of the time. If I can make a joke I will, and even if I cant I'll try and hope that the attempt was enough to get a pity chuckle out of you. I suppose it is my small contribution to the world. Or simply to my friends and everyone I have the pleasure to meet. I will do almost anything I can to get a smile.
• I have HORRIBLE timing... always have, always will.
• I can't empathize with girls, I can try, but I usually fail.
• there are a few things that can tearme away from my thoughts of food, one of those is an angry Kathy (my mom's name is Kathy also).

After that "evangelism scenario" word spread about my plants comment and by the end of the day the camp was a-buzz with laughter about my ludicrous attempt at whatever it was that I was trying to do. It was a joke among the youth of my church until I graduated High School. I was happy, for 7 years, I could bring a smile to peoples faces with the memory of 4 words.

...So, you like plants....