Thinking

Sometimes I wonder if it drives y'all crazy that I put so many You Tube videos on my blog. And then I remember. This is my blog. Then I experience a surge of power. And then I laugh at myself for trying to be funny when everybody else is looking at the computer screen with a "huh?" expression on their face. Then I erase this paragraph and move on with my post. But today I think I'll leave it. Surely one of you will chuckle with me. [chirp, chirp]

Okay, so here's the You Tube video. (And yes, you will have to watch it in order to fully appreciate my next remarks.)



The part that particularly struck me started about second 50, although the beginning in interesting enough. By the way, this is Richard Feynman, a physicist.

When it comes to counting and talking or reading, I'm like Feynman, I think. I can count and read at the same time, but not talk. I notice this on the phone. I can multi-task with a lot of things, but if I try to do something similar, I trip all over myself and can't talk and therefore sound like a bit of an idiot. :) Whatever...

Anyway, it has often struck me that even when we're all speaking English, we can't always be speaking the same language. For example, one day I was sitting in Relief Society and the teacher asked us to read a certain paragraph, answer a question and then talk it over in a small group. Well, we read the paragraph and thought of our answers and then began to discuss. The answer seemed very obvious to me. It was practically stated exactly as the question was asked in that particular paragraph. That led me to a particular train of thought and I learned something quite profound. As the women in my group began to discuss their thoughts about our paragraph and question, my first thought was that somehow I had read the wrong paragraph and thought about the wrong question. I quickly realized that no, we really had been looking at the same words, but somehow what was completely obvious to me was totally missed by everyone else and it seemed like other people were pulling their answers out of thin air. Incredible.

Another time, we were discussing something of a political nature with a friend who has different views from ours. He asked a question about one of our views. We gave a clear, concise answer. He accused us of changing the subject. We restated his question and matched our answer exactly to his question. He again accused us of changing the subject. I thought him impossibly dense. Hm...

I have many times considered whether we even see things the same way. For example, my husband and I have a vastly different opinion of beauty. Are we seeing the same things? Do colors look the same to you as they do to me? Do shapes look the same way? What about depth perception? How much of this has to do with the way our eyes function? Brains? Conditioning? Do we hear things the same way? Feel things the same way? People make fun of the way I can't stand touching flour or sand. But do you feel the same way when you walk across the beach? Taste the same orange juice I do?

I am now thinking to myself, "I wonder how clear this post is coming across. It all makes sense to me. Each thought logically leads to the next." Are any of you thinking, "Not only does this girl ramble, she's totally incomprehensible, too!"? But surely you have to admit this is such an interesting thought! No wonder we're counseled to not judge another before we've walked a mile in their shoes. Maybe it's that we shouldn't judge another before we've seen/felt/heard... like they do. And since that seems to be impossible, at least for now, that's why we really shouldn't judge?