Friday, January 21, 2011

The Brain Fart

In college Travis had a roommate who coined for me the term brain fart. It is the absolute lack of thought. It occurred when on a fourish hour drive from Rexburg to Provo he was largely silent. I asked him what he was thinking about. He said nothing. Of course I didn't believe him and further harassed him about the train of his thoughts teasing him with guesses of girls and other secret worthy type thoughts. But he assured me that indeed it was nothing and asked me didn't I ever just sit and stare without thinking. To which I promptly replied no. I was shocked and astounded to realize that some people are capable of this absence of thought. We discussed what is was like and he said it's just empty air in my brain. Like a fart. Hence brain fart. Still to date I don't know if I have ever experienced this absolute lack of thought. My brain runs at a hundred miles an hour till the moment I fall asleep. What types of things do I think about largely useless, but still...they are there.
For instance on my mind right now:
  • How do parents without a belief in God survive the death of a child?
  • Why does Kody have a fever, but no physical pain anywhere?
  • Will the Amazon seller I am in contact with offer me a suitable concession?
  • What type of grass seed should I buy?
  • I need to print off ten copies of a paper for a church thing.
  • I need to buy a present for a b-day party for Bella tomorrow, get more painters tape, and buy seed.
  • What type of grass seed should I buy?
  • Will I ever know if my parenting efforts are the best way until it is too late?
  • I can't wait to eat at PF Chang's tonight.
  • Will the kids ever be able to play the Wii without it ending in fights?
  • How long will it be fun for me to play Wii with the kids?
  • I/Santa probably just should have gotten a Wii for the kids for Christmas instead of all the other stuff. I think they would have been happy and I could have saved tons of money.
  • Should I paint the picture frame red or leave it white. And if I leave it white should I fill it with a picture that is predominantly red?
  • Why is my computer running so slow?
  • I wonder if Travis will know how to fix it.
  • I need to stop blogging and get back to work.

So you see nothing exciting. But I assumed everyone worked like this! Am I wrong? Have any of you ever just sat and not thought?

2 comments:

Sommer said...

Yeah I have never just sat and not had something in my head thinking about. I sure would love to sit around though and not have anything going on in my head. It's exhausting!

Nevada Lyman said...

I've done that and it's glorious. Perhaps you have and you just don't realize it. Anyway you try it out- just stare at something and take in the details without narrating your thoughts. You can do it!