So many things to think about the last few days. Hmmm.....movies&ticket sales. Missing rings. The heat. Moving again. Swimming pools. The heat. Dogs&cats. The heat. Scrambled brains. And did I mention The Heat?
I sit here in front of a fan, because the air-conditioning does not work, thinking about how to cool off. It has been running between 103 to 106 degrees the past week--with no end in sight. This probably balances out the severe and endless cold we had this winter. Do you think things will even out year-round if we just stop bitching about the weather??? It's worth a try. Sure is hot today, though. ;-)
So, we go every Friday afternoon to a convalescent center and have devotional meetings for these people. Most of them are in various stages of Alzheimer’s disease. We read from the different Sacred Writings; the Bible, Qu'ran, Suffi, Bahá'í, Zoroaster, etc. We play music. These people just light up--because of the content and the fact that others are willing to sit with them for a couple of hours and just 'be.' It has been interesting. Their souls are still intact, regardless of what has happened to their minds. I have a theory, though I know it is probably far beyond reality.
There is the one man who carries on conversations, even during the devotions. Doesn't matter if someone is saying a prayer or reading from the texts. Anyway, he just talks about stuff. Just stuff. It makes no sense. But, all his other social cues are right on target. Usually someone responds to him as he carries on these conversations. So, my theory is: perhaps what he is saying actually makes perfect sense. Oliver Sacks has written extensively on people who have undergone brain trauma of varioius kinds. His books are fascinating, so look him up--if this interests you.
There was the story of the man who mistook his wife for a hatrack. The word 'hatrack' in his mind, came to symbolize 'wife' to him. So, what if everything has just shifted? An analogy would be, I suppose, like a computer filing system. There are folders in which you keep your files. Say a given folder WIFE has all the files you associate with that context. WIFE is an image in your mind where you file all things related. Ditto for HORSE, CAR, FOOD, etc. Each folder is an image that then gets linked and associated with all files having to do with that image. Then you have a sudden power surge and some of the folders get shifted--or the contents of the folders get shifted. So, your folder HATRACK now contains all the files associated with 'wife' or most of the files pertaining to the image 'wife'. Since we are both visual and verbal creatures, the shifting of this system would obviously put us out of sync with the rest of the people around us. Therefore, a statement such as "I took my hatrack to dinner last night." would cause those around us to scratch our heads and think we've lost a few bolts.
In reality, we are making perfect sense because, in our personal visual reality, hatrack now equals wife. Nothing has changed insofar as we can see. Which takes me back to the man mentioned above. If his comments are such: "I took the pigs to the dentist and had their cigarettes fitted to their ears. Once I got that done, I went and had a nap with cod filling. For desert I had sand storms on the beach. The weather was quite nice and only pushed the car off the edge." On the face of it, it makes no real sense. But, if we could get into the mind of that individual, if we could see just exactly how the folders and files got shifted, then we could understand him. Of course, that would take a Rosetta stone for every person going through this experience. But, the reason I say all this is because of the social cues.
All gestures and mannerisms pertaining to this man's conversation were on the mark. The intelligence that shows in a person's eyes when engaged in a discussion were there. All the hallmarks of a normal conversation. In his mind, all the associations were right and correct. What he said was exactly what he meant--according to his new filing system. If the picture of 'wife' is now linked permanently to the verbal cue 'hatrack' then hatrack and wife go together. And make sense. It is our inability to understand his new filing system that causes the misunderstanding.
Okay, so this may not make a whole lot of sense on the face of it. Anyway, it's just a theory. If anyone has a spare Rosetta stone laying around that works on the human mind, please let me know as I'd like to borrow it. Thanks!
0 comments:
Post a Comment