EMOTIONS, ENTROPY, AND THE HUMAN(E) BRAIN

I know how it is. Especially in the current Presidential campaign season, you hear things

coming out of your TV that make you just want to throw a shoe at it. Why do we get so

riled up over other people's opinions, especially when they're not in alignment with our

own?

Our emotions are based on what we think and how our thoughts make us feel. And

remember, our human brain, which we all have in common, enables us to think, but our

mind is its output, if you will--separate from the brain itself. How we perceive what we

see, hear, and experience helps us to formulate our individual opinions.

With a world population that now tilts north of 7 billion, there are countless philosophies,

religions, political opinions, and special interest groups among us. Then we can get into

cultures, nationalities, and of course the obvious visual physical variations that we

identify with our thinking and emotions. The speed at which we communicate nowadays

is also at play. Social media, twenty-four-hour news cycles, live tweeting, and other

rapid fire forms of dialogue have made us realize that "others" and "their" mindsets are

actually in close proximity to ourselves--no longer half a globe away. Long held

thoughts and opinions by one group or other are now more exposed. The hard fact is that

others hold just as tenaciously to their time honored ideals. Looking at this from an

entropy standpoint: a sparsely populated planet of hundreds of thousands of years ago

with unorganized ways and methods (disorder), gave rise to a large populations, social

group thinking, and territorial demarcation (order), which are now showing signs of

rupturing at their seams due to ever increasing proximity and cultural crossing over of

ideals and opinions (disorder).

But since we now realize that the human brain is our true common denominator, perhaps

it is time that we place a sharper focus on a more humane quality when it comes to

assessing the opinions of others. Why should we consider this? Simply because we can.

Instead of allowing ourselves to get caught up in reactionary, dismissive judgment, even

if we don't understand the other person's viewpoint, we can first give him or her respect

and value for showing up with a human brain. Thoughts, feelings, morals, and opinions,

no matter how long they have been with us, are mutable. Even if formed through actual

personal experience, we can change what we think or how we view others without

needing to have the equal weight of a different experience to counterbalance the

previously held mindset. We can evolve in our thinking and alter our emotions in an

instant. We can see that over time, entropy will alter whatever truths we hold onto so

dearly no matter what. But our humane brain can also be the agent of change when we

redirect our thinking, using it as the energy catalyst, providing our emotions a most likely

well needed rest from all the upheaval when we hear another human airing his or her

thoughts.

-Paula

Be Kind

If you're looking for an excellent classic movie to watch, I highly recommend the 1937

original version of "The Lost Horizon" with Ronald Colman and Sam Jaffe. There have

been remakes, but this nearly 80-year old restored version is the one to watch. Even

though several minutes of film have been lost due to decomposition, (...this is a perfect

time to interject "entropy", unless of course you thought of it first!...) the 13-year

restoration process has rendered a sparkling and beautiful rendition that would rival any

high budget, over-the-top, special effects driven spectacle offered today.

Ordinarily, I'd hate to scoop the plots and outcomes, but there is so much substance to be

taken away from the James Hilton novel-turned-movie, a little discussion won't ruin it for

you purists. The protagonist, brilliantly portrayed by Ronald Colman, is British Foreign

Secretary Conway, whose flight from a rescue mission in China, crash lands in the

Himalayan Mountains. Conway and the other evacuees are carried to safety, but not to

any place that was known to anyone in their "outside" world. Shangri-La was a

fantastical remote land governed by the High Lama (Sam Jaffe), a society that was free

of the cares and pre-war strife in which people everywhere else were embroiled. Once

the Foreign Secretary had met with the High Lama, he became torn between his sworn

duties at home and the peaceful yet mystical dreamworld in which he found himself. The

conflicted protagonist is forced to make the life and death decision to return home or to

remain in Shangri-La. Whatever choice he would make, however, would forever be

influenced by the simple message he received from the High Lama: "Be kind".

Since we are the only species with the Human(e) Brain, we alone can make the decision

to be kind. The High Lama's message in a film that was made when movies were merely

a few years removed from the Silent Era, was framed by centuries of mankind's wisdom,

philosophies, and religions, boiled down to the two words, "Be kind". We humans group

ourselves into many types of social strata based on our thinking and outward physical

appearance--who we are. But being endowed with our human brain is the determining

factor of what we are because it allows us to think. We all belong to that group!

Try to view "The Lost Horizon" as soon as you can. Reflect deeply on the conflicts

which the characters are faced with. Ask yourself what you would do if you were in

Conway's position? And when you are forced to make difficult choices and judgments,

remember to be kind. You can't go wrong.

-Paula