It seems there is a way in which the thought process works to help or hinder people, so even when describing the ‘inner workings’ of the brain, sometimes it is to highlight that what is working in mind, is not working at all out of mind. There has been much discussion over the decades about how the brain works, what its triggers and treats are, and how it can be affected greatly by various external pressures and stresses. But two of the main ones we need to get through life with some semblance of order and safety, we have thought, and we have will. To think and to act.

You would think maybe it was a given that those two would work well together, a tandem tag team that you can reply on to weigh up the situation with thought, and determine a course of action to then be actioned by the will to do it. But reality shows us a different partnership occurring in some people, if not all at some point in their life, where those two necessary components for making things happen have had a breakdown, or a falling out of sorts in mind and is no longer going along with the ‘norm’.

“The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak” was a saying that made me mull it over when I heard it, as many things do, but the idea that it didn’t matter how much you willed it, if your body says no, then it says no. And listening to your energy levels and internal requirements is a must, because if both aren’t in optimal shape, there is extra work to be done from either side and can lead to problems. When you factor into that having to deal with ‘society’ and all that throws at you too, you realise it might not be just a straightforward process of making it all work.

I’m sure many have heard the term being an overthinker, whether you have been accused of being one or not, you have probably heard of it. And indeed, there are definitely some people who find the term completely unfamiliar, knowing only how to ‘surface think’ I guess I would call it. Where they do not delve into the depths of thought, but rather skirt round the edges, occasionally maybe peering in and seeing a huge swirling mass of elaborate and intricate avenues of information to navigate. You may even know people who are afraid of it, shaking their head at the mere idea of complex thought, or even at just a bit of extra effort to understand quite basic thought and reasoning. And that is where I presumed that people actively choose to not think, or hone their powers of reasoning to be employed when needed, ideally to help you to get through and understand life as best you can. But then another saying comes to mind here, “ignorance is bliss”. Yes, in a way it is, because if you don’t know, then it can’t affect you technically, but we know there are different types of ignorance, and the relevant here would be wilful ignorance. Where it is a choice, and people decide to ‘look the other way’ and pretend rather than have to then act and deal with it. They do have the capacity for depth of thought, but clearly would rather not have it and want to ignore reality for the most part I guess and just get through. Anything for a quiet life as the saying used to go. So there must be a level of perception going on to make that choice, because they do say that ignorance is a choice, and you do not need to be beholden to it.

But there does seem to be battle between thought and will, where we have been encouraged to think but not to act on many things, to hold ourselves down as we have been ‘trained’ too accordingly. And we are also expected to act on things that aren’t entirely what we would find ourselves doing in a normal life, so we have to act without real thought sometimes, because once you apply thought, it shows it for what it is. A strange system of conditioning and control, which we are made to fit into, and if we develop or display ‘problems’, we are sent for recalibration and re-education. Given drugs and more systems to adhere to, given rules and regulations, grades and standards. Just like we are In A Zoo with an overtone of The Beautiful Mice, being led towards our new experiment of society.

But being able to think and be in control of your thoughts and subsequent actions is something we shouldn’t take for granted. There are moves to try and outlaw thoughts and ideas, before they even become spoken word or enacted, which is very dangerous ground – especially as they are also changing what is considered crime, violence and the meanings for many things are being redefined. And at the same time they would like to insert mechanical chips In Your Head while they are Chipping Away at our freedoms and individualism. They want to be privy to your most personal and intimate thoughts and desires, even more so than just Monitoring everyone on the internet, they want to be in you, literally. Very weird and creepy and covered in Something Creepy This Way Comes. And come this way it does, moving through society currently like a disturbing dark entity, trying so hard to disrupt and corrupt people’s thoughts and lives. If only people knew how much power and energy they really had, and how far thoughts and actions can really go, it might be different. But you know what, that different might just be what’s coming…

(c) K Wicks

It all depends on perspective, as a situation can appear quite differently depending on your viewpoint and position in that situation. And sometimes a saying or analogy can be either viewed from a different angle, or mindset, which in turn gives it new meaning. There are many things over the years I have heard, and took them on board as their literal meaning, or intent as a phrase, not giving them closer thought until years later. Things like, once in a blue moon, when hell freezes over, under the weather, or things considered to be old wives’ tales or old beliefs. I pay more attention to them these days, as it seems often people have woven wisdom into analogies or phrases, to be passed down and kept in circulation, even if their original meaning isn’t always noticed. But this one is for an analogy, and one I have used myself in my book The Willing Observer, of the pot of water and the frog. The saying being that if you put a frog into boiling water, it will jump out being aware of the danger, but if you start the water cool, and slowly heat it up, it won’t notice and will boil to death. It’s simple and easy to grasp, and that is the only way I thought of it until today.

And it was a complete switch around for me of that analogy, where we are no longer the frog, and instead become the water, and the ones who dictate society became the frog. Who sat in the water of society for the longest time, creating their ideals and ways for the water to flow around them, calmly bathing and going about their froggy business. And it seems they are the ones who perhaps didn’t notice when the water starting getting agitated and starting to heat up, or perhaps they thought they could turn it back down again, who knows. But the idea that we are not the frog, and instead the people are the water heating up to boiling point, was suddenly a very clear one, and makes sense given how things are playing out at the moment.

But the idea that it is they who are unaware of what is really going on, does seem an interesting one, because although many don’t agree with how society is shaping up and the way it is being steered, I think it’s still almost a buckled comfort to think that someone is in control though, and even if it appears as chaos, they still want to believe that it’s organised chaos. Yet, as with water, we too are part of a collective, and moving freely and going with the flow is something we have in common with water. When that is halted or redirected it has an outcome. Think of a dam, and how it holds back a great volume of water, gathered and maintained, used for purpose, like us. But rivers and streams are able to flow and create their own path through nature, as we would too if we were able to, without having all the obstructions placed there by the authorities. Instead, any water that escapes the reservoir, seems to be siphoned into small pools and puddles, where it gets cut off and left to turn stagnant.

Yet water in large quantities with a path is incredibly powerful and can create a new landscape given the right circumstances and time. And that is how I think of society at the moment, that there is a huge body of water behind a dam that is starting to boil and there are small cracks appearing in the exterior of that dam. Little ones at first, as the water finds it and starts to flow, and then more, until it bursts and all that water that has been held back for the longest time, gets to move and go where it is meant to.

Be the water and not the frog.

(c) K Wicks