By David Malcolm Rose
Did you ever catch yourself rubbing that space between your brows or massaging your temples when trying to remember something? You do such things for one simple reason. Thinking is painful.
Thinking makes your head hurt primarily because intense mental effort physically alters your brain’s chemistry. This causes muscles in your head and neck to tense up. The brain itself has no pain receptors, but the nerves, blood vessels, and muscles surrounding it do, and they are all telling you to stop. Simply put, your body doesn’t want you to think.
I’m all in favor of that. Thinking has never done me much good and has often led me astray. But how does one stop thinking? Meditation, that’s the ticket. Dial it down. I’m way too old to get in the lotus position or anything even close. I tried to do it by lying down and doing that lotus thing with my fingers. I fell asleep, which, I’ve been told, doesn’t count.
I’ve spent most of my life thinking, trying to figure it all out. Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Are we there yet? So far, I have nothing to show for it. If my body doesn’t want me to think, why am I constantly swimming against that tide? Why am I always trying to find my way out of this maze when I could just sit down in some quiet corner and give over to the labyrinth?
I tried resignation, and to my surprise, it worked. Like the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion, I’d come to see the answer was within me the whole time. I now spend my days mindlessly, and I might add painlessly, playing FreeCell and posting drivel on Facebook.
David Rose, of Hot Springs, is an author and artist.
{More of David’s musings can be found at thespringsmagazine.com/category/arts/david-rose.}
