Yesterday I went for a long walk. As I was walking small particles of ice began to fall from the sky, tinkling all along the path. They were not wet and I enjoy the cold so I kept walking. When I walk, I do a lot of thinking. This time I began thinking about thinking.
I have a layman's understanding of how the brain works. Electrons buzzing about, doing their assigned tasks and scurrying to their assigned destinations. Chemicals recording memories, sort of like a copy machine. The brain seems to me to function like an office. Hmm, I wonder if the electrons are stored in cubicles?
O.K., that is my understanding of the brain. Then I started thinking "What is thinking?". Is it like an office meeting where no one leaves the office but just sits and comes up with ideas?
I laid down last night to sleep and sleep didn't come. The wheels were spinning and thinking about thinking were the cloth they were spinning. Do electrons think or are electrons what thinking is? Why are we self aware and are we the only ones that are. There are a lot of brains on this planet and are human ones the only ones that are self aware? Do the others think?
The quandry got deeper. I am a meat eater and I enjoy it very much. What if what I am eating was a thinker? If it was I would be very ashamed of myself. If cows can think, I am doomed.
Sleep still didn't come, instead came blasphemy. The pagan Romans said "I think, therefore I am.". I recall, probably incorrectly, that God said to Moses "I am that I am.". Does this mean that God doesn't think or that there is no place for thinking in the Bible? Why would anyone create an image of themselves that thought? It would be like the pictures in Myst. Were Adam and Eve doomed because they ate a fruit from the tree of knowledge and therfore started thinking?
I will have to think about this. I will have time today because the only thing I plan to do is make chicken marsala. I puchased a very large botle of Marsala and I only need 1/2 cup of it for the chicken. I am sure that there will be a lot of thinking. My brain must be extemely convoluted as my thinking surely is.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
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3 comments:
Chicken marsala? What time will it be ready? :-)
Oh, I can't help myself - wasn't that Descartes, "Je pense, donc je suis"?
Sorry, Dad, I just got so excited to be able to correct you! :)
Maybe it's because I learned it in French class, the french stuck in my head, not the latin?
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