365 Days, Day 195

Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? (T.S. Eliot)

Information is the seed for an idea, and only grows when it's watered (Heinz V. Bergen)

I gather information as I go, and I store it for later use: like a squirrel collecting its nuts and seeds for winter (do they really do this, or is this just what we read in stories?)… On occasion I forget what I have gleaned, but some little trigger will set off the memory and result in a nugget of forgotten information being unwrapped.

We are overloaded with information everyday – everywhere we look there are signs, symbols, pictures, messages. Yet our brains sort through all of this sensory overload and make sense of it, store it, discard it, without our often being aware of this process. What amazing machines our brains are!

Sometimes we ask using language for information, like: “How old is your son then?” Your brain realises that it has made a mis-judgement when the reply is: “He is not my son, he is my boyfriend.” Or: “Could you tell me where I can find the post office?” Again brain realises too late *rewind, rewind* - that the eyes were not paying attention, as the reply is: “Um, right behind you…” Okay, so at times, the brain has to rely on the other parts of us humans to feed it some information which is why there are temporary malfunctions on the information front.

At the moment, I am reading four books: The Importance of Being Seven by Alexander McCall-Smith – just for fun as it’s light reading; Spider Web, a play in three acts by Agatha Christie; Three Cups of Tea, One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin – recommended by Nicki (it has changed the way people think about changing the world: Peace Through Education); and Reiki for Life by Penelope Quest – as preparation begins for my second level Reiki course which I am doing in January. Each of these books, in its own way, provides me with information about different cultures, different ways of thinking, and different ways of doing things. I am enthralled by each of these very diverse styles of writing and topics.

I am gathering information for later use.