My dear daughter,
I have been thinking today about neuroscience.
Nowadays we know our brains don’t work as if there was a single “me”. There are several relatively independent parts and they’re not always working harmonically. Sometimes they are even in conflict.
It’s not just emotion/reason, primitive/recent brain. While we think we are awake, there are parts of the brain which are sleeping, and vice versa. The brain never goes completely inactive, only when we die. Surely we will have to talk about death, but not today.
There are parts which appear to “produce” conscious thought, whereas others seem responsible for instinct. Memories form in the hippocampus, but not exclusively. The pineal gland secretes melatonin and DMT, it has something to do with us getting sleepy and also helps control circadian cycles.
Sometimes I know I have to make considerable efforts to keep on studying complex matters in order to secure a better life for us in the future. The effort is necessary because I also like to sit on my back in contemplation, enjoying what I already have.
It might seem quizzical, but probably the part of my brain which regulates threat responses says everything is alright, I have food, shelter, you, your mother, we’re not in any immediate danger, so my body should just waste minimal energy, accumulating calories if eventually we come to a shortage, which was very frequent during our evolutionary past.
Some more conscious part of my brain knows it’s all pretty elusive and that I should keep on studying, burning calories and worrying about securing a better future. But other parts of my brain are not even aware of this, the conscious part probably hasn’t even got a good form of communicating such needs to the rest of the brain.
If all parts were constantly aware of these immaterial needs, I would probably work toward my set goals like a robot, and things would be easier from a certain point of view. But things don’t work like this, so every day I have to bring myself to study, to perform certain chores which have no immediate relation to securing my basic needs.
It has to be an everyday effort because the brain only assimilates that which it is exposed to frequently. Otherwise it won’t spend valuable energy setting routines and neural pathways to things which will be rarely used.
Perhaps life would be easier, more peaceful or even happier if we could just settle for what we have – if it is enough to attend to all our basic needs. Maybe all those monks and people meditating and going to therapy are trying to get their brains to be aligned with that idea, while trying to ignore all the elusive needs imposed by entertainment, culture or consumerism.
Which is why I have stated before ignorance can be a bliss, and too much knowledge might bring a lot of worrying and anguish. But I still say knowledge beats ignorance any day.
Love,
Dad
Aspergers Dad 