Lynn showed me a piece of wood with a hole 10 centimeters in diameter. I have heard that is often the amount of dilation that mothers need for their babies to be born. I know that brain size and head size are not exactly the same but it is still the case that large heads and large brains affect human life. I just read that episiotomies are actually performed less since research has shown mothers do better and heal better without them.
Schools, culture, science and research all push for more thinking. More imagination, more critical analysis of what we do, what other ways we might live, constantly urging us to think, to speculate, to wonder. I very much like the information in Eagleman's "Incognito" that much of what we do is not part of our conscious mind. I also like the first chapter of Prof. Lisa Feldman Barrett's book "7 ½ Lessons About the Brain". That chapter of her book is called "Your Brain is Not for Thinking". Her point, like Eagleman's, is that our bodies are quite complex. So are our lives and our activities. Our brains are the government, the control center, of our bodies and activities.
Computers, smartphones, training and discussions tend to urge us to be aware of more, to consider more, to keep more in mind. In fact, they will like me more if I think about the issues they think about.
We can develop habits of being overworked, steadily distracted, frequently quizzing ourselves about conditions around the world, out in space, in our bank accounts and our wallets. Does the car need an oil change? How are the kids doing in school? Is there an election today? When is that party I want to attend?
It seems that we are getting so brainy, so connected, we are in touch with too much. I suppose it is a sign of my age that I picture myself or someone I know when they are dead. Dead - insensitive, unaware, not in touch, not conscious. I picture life before the printing press, when I would not have known what the Pope or Luther were up to. Life before the telegraph when I didn't know what just happened in DC or the state capitol.
I am not yearning for those days. I am just teaching myself to limit my concerns, to worry less, even to wonder about fewer questions.
