Doh!

Have you ever lost control of what you were gonna say even before you were going to say it and before you said it you knew you had already lost control and you even recognized in your head that you were about to say something that you knew you didn’t want to say, but you did anyways?  Ya me neither.

Juuust kidding.  So again I’m reading this less is more book.  I come across this story and one, it is sad, and two it is funny and similar to my first paragraph above.  It also has some brain science that I’ll expound upon.  It goes like this. 

A Ch’I individual stole some money at a crowded bazaar.  He was walking away with it when the police asked him why it was that he stole the money in the market.  The thief replied that the sight of the money filled his mind to the exclusion of the policeman.  So his desires made him forgetful of the nature of his act.

~Huai-nan Tzu, d. 122 B.C.

People know the difference, generally, between right and wrong.  Some call that a conscious.  In my religion we call that the Light of Christ.  If this story was told to the Ch’I individual in the story at a later time and this individual had the opportunity to step into time to tell the story individual something, what would that person probably say?  They’d probably say something to the effect of, “Stealing is bad.  Don’t do it.” And they’d be right.  So why did he (us) do it anyway?  Seemingly without any control whatsoever?  Trauma and drama and the limbic system. 

We all do it.  Whether you think you do or not you naturally let yourself go to this wonder world of pain escaping.  With my counseling I’ve been able to better pinpoint when it is happening and change course appropriately, but I’m not perfect yet.  The last time I remember it happening and me calling it out out loud with my wife present was a single adult dinner. 

I’m 27.  I like video games and books and finance and sleep and sports.  My wife serves at our local church and I went with her as support for an event she was helping at.  Well they served dinner there and once dinner was done they had a choir come out and sing to the 90 year old men and women of our area.  Christmas songs.  Nothing new or catchy really so…I did what I knew best to do in that situation with my boredom.  I started eating like a champ. 

Before I’d even sat down to the table there was some all natural, freshly picked, peeled, pureed, green jello gob on a plate.  I ate a bit to most of that out the gate.  Then came potatoes and rolls and more potatoes, funeral potatoes.  Then they brought out little chocolate santas with caramel in the middle.  I bit santa’s head off like a lion during mating season lol.  Then they passed out chocolate cake.  And more rolls.  Mind you I could’ve stopped eating after like 5 minutes.  But because I was bored out of my freaking mind I just ate.  I didn’t realize what I was doing until my mouth started to feel like it was forming some sort of sore due to all the sugar intake I had just had.  I then turned to my wife and said, “I’m eating cause I’m bored.”  I don’t think I stopped immediately eating after my realization…I scraped up some more frosting and drank a lil more water and then stopped. 

So my point is this.  Our brains are so efficient at easing pain that they just go into auto pilot even though the rational brain knows that what is being done is doing waaaaay more damage than good and if that same brain/person was apprised of what was actually going on in a normal setting it/they would revolt and turn away immediately.  This is the explanation for why the guy in the market only saw the money and not the police.  This is why the drug, alcohol, sex, work addict only sees those substances and not the damage that they’re doing.  They only see that cause the brain, the limbic subsystem specifically, blocks out everything else and focuses only on the pleasure/relief of the preferred activity.  In the market case, the relief was stealing and money and what that money would do for the relief of pain of the thief.

Food for thought.