Lines of the mind...

If your state of mind were represented in linear form, as in an EKG or Harold's purple crayon, how would it look? I notice that in times of stress my consciousness seems like a jittery, sawtoothed line. My senses seem to be cerebrally processed in fits and spasms and my nervous system gets wired like a panicked old lady in the passenger seat of a teenager's first car (foot poised to slam on imaginary breaks at every intersection).

Other times, when all systems are go, the lines are sharp and clean, musical even, swooping and swerving like a hawk over a field of mice. So where do you find this line? It's behind your eyes, a band of brain mass sort of up and behind the bridge of your nose. Try to pay attention to that area, feel the line of time (a separate axis) passing through you, and notice how your awareness and your reactions integrate to each passing moment.

Why am I telling you this? Because ultimately, a human wants a modicum of command over the shape of that line. Not too much (unless you are striving to become a South American dictator or tightrope walker) and not too little (unless you think jittery, unaware people are the be all and end all of fully-realized human specimens).

View "The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics" here.


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