July 29, 2012
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I’ve been at a conference. This involves lots of work and fun and the eating of strange foods. #2 son was in town for a few days and #2 daughter is here for the conference, so that also has been fun.
A lot of our conversations last night were just silly, though. How sure footed is a llama, exactly, and at precisly what stage do you prefer to eat bananas? Stuff like that. However, the Computer Guy shared with me his experience of thought.
This was interesting in and of itself, of course, but it was also interesting to me because we’ve been discussing this recently around the house. Some of us think all the time, and some of us claim to be able not to think.
I say “claim,” because to me this sounds like saying,”Oh, my heart only beats when I’m exercising. When I’m at rest, it doesn’t beat at all.” I think that the brain is always thinking, basically. That’s what it does.
The Computer Guy says that thoughts take up space in his mind and it’s a relief to write them down and get them out of his brain. A couple of our family members say that they can be conscious but not thinking. Sort of meditative, perhaps. I don’t know. I can’t imagine it.
Why should our experiences of thought be different? If it’s a simple physical process, a matter of electricity in the brain, you’d expect it to be fairly uniform.
Or not. I was interested to learn, when I did a writing project for a surgical hospital, that human bodies are not alike inside: the organs are in different places in different people.
Perhaps, if we had more consciousness of our circulatory systems, we’d find that blood flow was different from one person to another as well.
Today I’ll be hanging out with #2 daughter till she leaves for the Big City. There’s work I would like her to have input on, but that may not happen. We should also visit her grandparents, but I don’t know about that, either. We certainly ought to try to eat proper food.
This afternoon, I will go back to the conference. I don’t think anyone else from my team will be going, so of course I don’t want to go, but I hope I will go anyway. I’m sure I’ll have fun if I do.
