Brains Gone Haywire

BRAINS GONE HAYWIRE.

Haywire – Strong wire used to bale hay or straw.  But, when things aren’t working properly fixing it with haywire is common.  It is available and cheap.  Unfortunately, if overused, breakdowns still occur and thus go “Haywire.”

 

An electric train is moving north at 100mph and a wind is blowing to the west at 10mph. Which way does the smoke blow?

If you sit in a bathtub it’s spelled “S O A K”  If someone tells a funny story it’s spelled “Joke.”  What is the white of an egg spelled?  E G G W H I T E

Who’s biggest:  Mr. Bigger, Mrs. Bigger or their baby.  The baby is a little bigger.

Appearances can be deceiving.  Looking closer reveals the truth.

I am reminded of the movie “The Lion King” and part near the end when Simba has run away and tried to forget the horrible death of his father and the guilt he felt because he thought he was responsible.

Rafiki, the wise, old baboon, councils Simba to try to help him find his place in the world.  But Simba, in his grief over the death of his father has purposely cut off the memories.  In doing so, he has also forgotten how powerful, majestic, and wise his father was.

Rafiki leads Simba on a wild chase until they reach a pond where the water is clear and still.  Rafiki has Simba look at his reflection in the water, telling him it is truly the reflection of his father living in him.  Simba backs away disappointed because he just sees the reflection of himself.  Then Rafiki utters the two key words of the entire film: “Look Closer.”

As Simba looks again at his mirror image, a magical epiphany occurs.  His father, Mufasa, appears in the water and rises up until he is in the clouds of a passing storm.  Mufasa tells his son that he has forgotten him and Simba’s place in the circle of life.  The scene ends with Mufasa echoing the words: “Remember who you are.”

I want us to focus on Rafiki’s instruction to “Look closer.”  At first glance Simba sees only himself, a lost, scared runaway and a failure.  By “looking closer” the Lion King finally sees his destiny and returns home to rule the land as he was meant to be.

For us, in our whirlwind we call life, we see, hear, and experience many things which at first appear one way but then take on new meaning once we’ve focused and see clearly.  We’ve discovered the truth.

We all make judgments about other people and various situations and make those evaluations very quickly.  This is our natural reflex designed to protect ourselves should a dangerous predator or event present itself.  Our brains switch to survival mode in an instant.

Our blood supply is quickly channeled to our vital organs, muscles and our brains.  The brain secretes adrenaline to boost our visual acuity, sense of smell, and provide additional energy to our muscles.  Our breathing becomes faster delivering more oxygen to the brain to increase problem solving skills and to make the decision to fight or fly.  The body is ready to do either.

But if we make all our decisions based on our animal survival instincts we tend to make the wrong choices.  Most of our thought processes don’t involve life or death situations.  A more careful, thoughtful approach is better.  “Looking closer” helps us better understand each other.  Listening better, observing body language, and noticing other visual cues provides far better information.  Information that is close to the truth.

By basing our thoughts and judgments on the way things really are enables us to make better choices.  Jesus knew this.  In John 8, when the Pharisees brought the adulterous woman out before the people and Jesus they pressed him for a quick judgment on the woman.  Jesus simply bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger.  When Pharisees pressed him for an answer, he stood up and said “Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone.”  Jesus passed judgment on the Pharisees not the woman.

The disciple Peter was prone to acting on impulse.  Peter wanted to prevent the crucifixion yet Jesus rebuked him with the ultimate insult “Get thee behind me Satan.”  Peter wasn’t thinking big picture.

When I took the CPA exam, right after the Mesopotamians invented it in 8,000 BCE, the people who wrote the exam questions loved to trick us with all sorts of clever traps.  The most common trick was to write a multiple choice question and give the financial information in such a way that the test taker was led to do the computation quickly but incorrectly. Then, those wicked question writers would figure out what the quick incorrect answer was and make it the first choice A.  The CPA candidate, thinking they had calculated the problem correctly, moved on to the next and never knew they’d been tricked.

I was fortunate enough to have an exam tutor who taught us that questions that seemed simple and had A as the “correct” choice were frequently trick questions.  In the words of wise old Rafiki “Look closer.”

Give some thought to the idea that, unless there is life or death at stake, first reactions are usually wrong.  Thoughtful consideration brings proper response.