Random Thoughts

1. I used to think I'd remember everything I ever thought. If my mind came up with it, then wouldn't it remember the whateveritwas later on?

This is not to say that I would recall everything I ever learned - for instance, Geometry. External knowledge, and all that Pi-r-Squared, can easily be cast aside like clothing or makeup. It is an external application to the brain.

But my thoughts, my imaginings, those are created internally and as such shouldn't they always remain a part of my biological make up?

It is only in recent weeks that I have realized that I believed this, and also that it is absurd.

a. My own biological makeup has changed almost completely since I was a child. These are not the fingernails that accompanied me into this world. The teeth in my mouth are all second wave. The swirl of primordial goo that was my brain as an infant has grown into a full sized adult melon. I have sloughed off cells, why not ponderings?

b. Even if the genesis of each thought is internal, it is informed by external forces. There's that whole nature vs. nurture argument - while influences from without shape a personality, there are undeniable natural pushes from within that complete the picture. (I'm not quite sure why there's such a drive to choose between one or the other. It seems impossible to exist in this world without an acceptance of both.) No thought is generated totally on its own absent of the outside world...so, it follows that these imaginings can be lost or discarded just as easily as Who was the 23rd President?

This came to me on the bus while I was trying to recall the most awesome thing ever.

But I forgot it. It sank to the murky depths...maybe after another storm it will resurface.


2. Why aren't we grossed out by the following when they are produced by us:

Spit
Loud, wet breathing sounds
Fingernail clippings
Used toothbrushes
Hair

But when somebody else does it, it's like a freak show.


3. Favorite word this week:

Clot |'klot|

n.

1. A thick, viscous, or coagulated mass or lump, as of blood.

2. A clump, mass, or lump, as of clay.

3. A compact group: a clot of automobiles blocking the tunnel's entrance.

v. clot·ted, clot·ting, clots

v.intr.

To form into a clot or clots; coagulate.

v.tr.

1. To cause to form into a clot or clots. See Synonyms at coagulate.

2. To fill or cover with or as if with clots.

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[Middle English, from Old English clott, lump.]

4. Least favorite word this week.

Munch.