Wouldn’t it be nice….
If we could harness a little more out of the thing in our heads we call a brain? I know you’ve all heard the saying that on average we, as human beings, only use about 10 % of our brains at any given moment, leaving a whopping 90% doing pretty much nothing, which would absolutely be of benefit if it could be put to use in some way, shape or form. I’ll get to the main reason why I am am talking about this in a bit but just to get the conversation started, I did go ahead and do a little search on brain percentage usage and here’s where that led. Nowhere! Turns out the 10% thing is a complete myth and most likely the reason 65% of folks in America believe it to be true….another drum roll please….MOVIES! Or Hollywood, in general (aka, TV shows movies and media). Yup, not true at all. According to what I was reading, the brain just happens to be extremely efficient and only needs to use parts of it to do certain things and other parts to do other things. In the end, apparently, the brain actually gets 100% put to use, again, just not necessarily all at the same time. And I guess this makes sense, but…
And the reason that I alluded to earlier, the other night I had a dream. Not unlike any other night, we all tend to dream a bit while sleeping, some you remember, some you don’t. Some are entertaining, some scary, some joyful and some absolutely make no sense at all (which you can credit the brain and its ability to go the step beyond when not constrained by the waking conscious brain and the many things that weigh it down). This particular dream had me riding in a car with a group of unknown passengers. The radio was playing and a song came on. What song you ask? All right (and mind you, I like to listen to a lot of different kinds of music so please don’t judge me), it was “I Think I Love You” by none other than The Partridge Family. Yes, I said it. Come to admit, I actually enjoyed watching their TV show back in the day and I find some of their songs quite catchy so really all part of the big picture. Anyway, everyone in the car decided to sing along and while I did my best, I clearly did not know all of the words, in fact, I did not know many of the words, other than the chorus, at all. But there was an unknown gentleman in the back seat of the car who was going word for word with Mr. David Cassidy and had them all down to a tee. Two strange things occurred to me on this (when I woke up), the first, how did I know the words were correct and the second, if they were correct, why didn’t I know them in the dream? Just so you know, I cannot recite them while awake now so certainly not part of my active memory and I can tell you if I go and play the song, I will still not know most of the words. Deep thoughts for sure. What I do know is that the song I heard in my dream was absolutely the correct version (and it did play completely through) or I have pretty much re-written that song with new words that are really good! Going with option one there just to be clear and with that thinking, it would mean that deep down, somewhere in the back of my brian, the real words to “I Think I Love You” exist in their entirety. And thus my dilemma. You see, if this is indeed the case, then how many more song lyrics are tucked away back there? Do I actually know all of the words to “Copacabana” or “Enter Sandman”? To tell the truth, I don’t even remember half of the words to my own songs but I guess that is a slightly different take on things.
The main point here being that songs are simply metaphors for pretty much anything that lies in the unconscious and it would really be nice if we could unleash a little bit more of what is potentially up there. And if it isn’t the fact that we are only using 10% of our brains at any given time, maybe the case is that we are using too much of our brains all of the time and things that we potentially do know are just being suppressed by all of the other things that go on in our daily lives? Just saying, a little clarity probably goes a long way. And then, just maybe, we could all sing a song without having to look at a lyric sheet. Who’s down for a little “Bohemian Rhapsody” (trust me, this is a very fun song to sing with a group even if you can’t hit the high notes)?
See you all next week!
