Why is it that when the human body is placed in a state of enforced idleness, the human brain belonging to that body insists on going into neutral also? In the eight weeks since a heart attack and a subsequent bypass operation rendered me more slothful than an inchworm crawling on a mulberry leaf, my mind seems to think it has every right to a period of recuperation, too.
I mentioned this to my sister. She says the answer is simple: when the body is idle, the brain has no reason to do anything other than idle along with the rest of the crowd. She may be right. When I was working, it seemed like every day two or three ideas would bang inside my head without any effort on my part. Not all were good ideas, certainly not all were original, but they kept bumping around against each other inside my mind, sorting themselves out, until finally, at the end of the day, they would settle down into one pretty good thought to ponder and write about.
A few days ago, after the woman I consort with made her way to work, I sat alone at the kitchen table gazing out the window watching a small flock of birds gather around the chimney stack on the roof of a neighbor's house to keep warm. They reminded me of how the kids in my family used to flock around the wood stove in our living room on a cold morning, first warming one side, then the other. Moving in and out, occasionally squabbling about who had the better position.
At the table, on my second cup of decaf, it seemed like the perfect place and time to grope for new ideas, so I gave myself an assignment: sit at the table for 30 minutes or until an idea I'd never thought of came to mind.
"Don't read, don't ponder, don't even answer the phone if it rings. Come up with one thought that is original."
In 30 minutes I could not. Oh!! It occurred to me to research the reason Chinese people like rice and Irishmen prefer potatoes, why our fingernails grow as long as we live but our teeth do not, why God made some birds that can fly and some that cannot -- is it because He has a sense of humor after all? You might want to take this up with your doctor or your preacher or even your hair-dresser.
Maybe I'm just in a slump, but it seems to me that the body's action begets brain action. That's why I'm looking forward to the time I can do more than walk five or six blocks a day. I want to go among the people to, as the big time writers say, interact and inter-relate. My body is healing, but my mind is atrophying. I'll sure be glad when I can get them working on the same level.
In the Liberty Column of the next issue was a comment from Andrea Madden, whose husband, Walt, was Jim's cousin.
"A message to Jim Parker in Michigan. We really did enjoy your article in last week's paper, about the 'brain' going on a leave of absence during the months after surgery. Don't worry not fret, just let Norma do your 'thinking' and everything will be OK. My better half says he went through the same feelings of 'limbo' in 1984 and here it is 1990 and not much improvement, so don't worry about such minor details!!! Just knowing that friends and family are there to guide you along will help."
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