“This is one of the definitions of intuition: It is that it’s knowing something without knowing why you know it.”
—— Daniel Kahneman
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“Good question, young lady.”
“Well… ?”
“Well, I know that I do think about a lot of things. I’m also quite sure that I know many things. I’m just a bit uncertain as to how important it all is, in the grand scheme of things.
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s just that over the years, I’ve found that it’s what I do… what I practice, that has the most profound impact on my life. Thinking is fun and yes, also important but without context it becomes less so, useless even, perhaps dangerous.”
“So you’re saying that it’s better to act from the heart than from the head, right? I’m very aware of that, and I agree with it most of the time. Still… that’s no good with people whose hearts have been twisted, people with hearts that have become black and evil, like bigots and psychopaths for example.
Wouldn’t it be better for all the bigots and psychopaths to just keep thinking their evil thoughts and never act on them?”
“Sure, it would. But it would be even better if bigots and psychopaths could be encouraged to practice thinking better thoughts, don’t you think?”
“I doubt that is possible. Besides, I thought you said thinking is not so important.”
“No, I said it needs context to be useful.
Yesterday, I was listening to the most recent episode of On Being with Krista Tippitt and Krista was interviewing neuroscientist Richard Davidson. Apparently, there is a lot of hard evidence that the mind and body are not as separate as classic behavioral psychology would have us think.
In the interview, Davidson pointed out that healthy mindful practices like meditation actually change the brain. And these practices change the physiology of the brain throughout a person’s life, not just during the prenatal, early childhood and adolescent periods of development.
Like you, I also doubt that adult bigots and psychopaths are likely to be affected much by this but it can’t hurt. I think it would be a good thing for our entire culture to encourage people to meditate even just a little everyday, like brushing your teeth.”
“Yea, I think I see what you mean, and I agree. I’ve been reading about how a lot of schools are starting to use mindfulness practices, especially with kids who act out with the most challenging behaviors.”
“Yes, Davidson is one of those people doing it in public schools, in California. I wish something like that had been the norm when I was that bratty little know-it-all kid… a million years ago. Perhaps I would have made better choices. I dunno, I guess it’s ok to be old and uncertain.”
“You don’t seem all that uncertain to me.”
It’s like that old saying… the older I get, the more I realize, the less I know. Please just shoot me if I start thinking I know much more than what I’m already uncertain about now, ok?”
“Oh, stop it!”
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Blessed…
m(___)m
