cerebrate

During my recuperation period, cerebration is something that I’ve had a lot of time to think about. I’ve come to the conclusion that every one thinks, but does everyone really cerebrate. At times in my life, I have felt and acted like I didn’t have enough sense to come in out of a shower of lime encrusted, salt-water forams. But who is to say or judge the depth of someone else’s thought processes, since that action alone does not lend itself to outward expression or disclosure.

If we were to celebrate cerebration, how would anyone else know what we were doing if there was no outward bodily sign of such joyous cogitation? At times – whether my face shows it or not – I am having a real cranial, brainial party. Though I mostly control these things in public, I find myself highly amused at home with these odd contemplations. The reason for this is that I never know what I’m going to think of next.

Precontemplation is a word I once saw in an article in a Pittsburgh newspaper. Since it was in print in the newspaper of a large American city, it must be possible, but I’m not sure how a person would go about doing that. To contemplate means to consider thoroughly or think fully or deeply about something. This condition of precontemplation then must come somewhere between wild disjointed (or jointed) thoughts running rampant around the thought faculties and the process of full contemplation. It must be something like getting one’s ducks in a row, except only thoughts are involved – hey, maybe that’s where some folk’s fowl language comes from.

I think that thinking can be very thoughtful indeed, except when it’s done without much thought involved. It’s an activity that is normally not injurious to anyone in any way, though I guess the one involved could strain or sprain their psyche if too many heavy thoughts are considered. I can only imagine having to put an ace bandage around the brain for it to recover full usage. Maybe some have had too many untreated brain strains and arthritis has set in.

Then there is always the danger of getting one’s train of thought derailed. I remember the big derailment back in the summer of ’03 down by the swamp of random rumination. One of the largest thought trains to come through Introspection Town in some time left the tracks on the big curve just before the trestle of deliberation. Every car of valuable meditation went down through the boggy ground before finally stopping just short of the river of indecision. All aboard the train was safe, albeit they were mired in the ooze, but the normal residents of the quagmire were greatly affected.

Squished in the derailment of thought were 14 tadpoles of forethought and 7 minnows of premeditation. An Eastern Spadefoot Toad of musing was severely injured and an Egret of regret – feeding on the tadpoles and minnows - was scared nearly witless. It took three large cranes of reality four thoughtful days to get all the vehicles back on the main thought track. It was determined later that the train just came through town too fast, ignoring all warnings about the curve that life sometimes throws at us.

Way back in the Old Testament, it encourages us to think and reason things out (Isaiah 1:18) in order to bring more order in our lives. Looking back at some past instances of problems in my life, I thought I was really thinking things through, but I wasn’t, I only thought I was thinking. But when I stopped thinking I was thinking and started to really think – with a Higher Power to help in my endeavor – I quit just thinking and started taking action toward the only Source of real solutions. Plus He helps me keep all my thought trains on track. ec