Wit's End
“It may
be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real
work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our
real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The
impeded stream is the one that sings.”
Wendell
Berry
We modern day humans rely
heavily upon our cerebral cortex to guide us—it is the seat of what
we call higher functions—language and ideas, justification and
planning. It houses our learned intelligence, our skill-sets, our
ability to follow instruction and direction. It's frequently referred
to as “gray matter,” and humans seem to have more highly
developed gray matter than most other animals, though we can't say
that for certain.
We've come to rely upon our
higher functions so much that we forget there are many layers to the
brain; older and non-verbal layers that function every bit as well
and just as much as our cerebral cortex. The hippocampus, for
instance, lies deep inside the brain and is part of the limbic
system. It stores memories and connects them with the senses and the
emotions. It is the hippocampus that associates the smell of cinnamon
toast today with the memory of our mother making it for us as
children—it can spark specific memories that we thought we had
forgotten. Sometimes those memories are attached to strong emotions.
We hear a piece of music and become suddenly sad, or see an image
that brings tears to our eyes, but we don't know why. These are old
brain functions. We share them with other animals.
Just as with other
animals, we are territorial, protective of our clan, and, if need be,
aggressive. We aren't that different from, say, a mother grizzly bear
with cubs, or our paleolithic predecessors. We are tribal, and
identify strongly with our land. These things have not changed, and
if push comes to shove, they play an ever more prominent role in our
daily lives. But, unlike a mother grizzly, we also have those higher
functions of humanitarianism, altruism, and compassion. We can choose
to override our instinctive response to perceived threat and instead
of striking out, we can reach out. We can negotiate and mediate.
Sometimes, however, we
reach the limits of what our cerebral cortex has to offer—we don't
know what to do, we can't come up with a plan, or talk our way out of
a situation. It's disorienting not to depend on our gray
matter to solve all our problems, because our ego-selves are
identified with that part of the brain. When it happens, we say we're
at our “wits end”—and we are. We experience it as a bad place
to be, when in fact, it may be a good place to be. It may be the
point at which our very limited intellect steps aside, and our very
expansive soul steps in. When we reach our wits end, we may just be
at our heart's beginning.
In the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment