The brain is a data reception and recognition center. It takes the data sent to it via the sensatory team, sorts it, stamps it with is and sends the information to the body’s cells who are all eagerly waiting for news of the now.

Example : ‘Ok, what’ve we got ?’ brain asks. Foot says, ‘Something slippery,’ as body quickly recuperates its balance saying, ‘Whew !’ Skin says, ‘It’s warm and moist.’ Nose says, ‘It smells funny.’ Eyes say, ‘It’s kind of a greenish brown.’ ‘Alert, alert !’ brain pronounces the is: ‘Oh my God, just stepped barefoot in dog doo !’

Emotions are now called into duty. They are our natural physical response to the BIB (brain’s information bulletin). My body shudders, ‘Disgusting!’ ‘Oh, gross,’ says stomach as it kind of does a back flip when it realizes the bad smell is actually smushed between toes. Actions are rapidly taken in function of the BIB hot off the press. I go to a hose, spray my foot. Go in the house, wash it with soap. Go to my husband, yell that our stupid neighbor’s even stupider dog has pooped once again in our backyard. (This is known as blowing off steam. Otherwise we could burst with the accumulated anger.)

Blink. Blink and the slate is back to blank. I’m in a normal, neutral state. Life goes on.

Eyes, ears, nose & Co. collect data from the ever changing landscape just beyond the body’s boundary lines and immediately sends it to headquarters. Brain acknowledges the is outside. Now there is information inside the body. All the cells are filled with brain’s conclusion as to what is out there. Emotions, like good housekeepers, always sweep is back out. They work like valves, they react and release. A BIB is sent down, a valve opens, a tear falls. A valve opens, I yawn nervously. A valve opens, my knees go weak. A valve opens, my face turns red. A valve opens and laughter ripples all around. A valve opens and the is is back where it belongs, outside the body. The body simply bumped into an outer circumstance. No matter how the BIB decides to label it, that is all it ever is, a circumstance. Not me. Not my story. Blink and I’m blank.

But some brains function like Fort Knox. They guard every single morsel of every single yesterday. These brains don’t sort data, they store it. This is the dog doo scenario from the perspective of a brain that desperately tries to keep is on file. (Of course, is, once filed, becomes was. Was and is are energies that live in radically different dimensions. The former in the thoughts of a dying body, the latter in the aliveness of the eternal now.)

Foot slips and says, ‘Slippery.’ Body recuperates its balance with a, ‘Whew.’ Skin starts to send in its report, but brain is no longer receptive. Nose would like to add something, but brain is too busy digging deep into its archives, looking through the billions of what was’s which have been kept religiously on record for a formal match up. Bingo ! ‘Found it,’ brain says, brandishing an old, overstuffed file with delight. ‘I knew it all along. Look, identical pairs.’

In this case the emotions aren’t asked to react to the dog doo currently under foot but to all the dog doo in the history of this mankind. A shudder of yuck becomes violent shaking. Washing with soap turns into a serious surgical disinfection ordeal. Tummy doesn’t flip over, it throws up. I go scream hysterically at my bewildered husband. Emotional valves release what is. But they are not powerful enough to evacuate with a nervous giggle a Niagara Falls of was’s. I blink and think. I blink but I’m not blank.

The brain is so clever. What would we do without it ? But our emotions have their own intelligence. They are always busy bustling about keeping our insides clean. They allow us to react to the BIB. We shout, pout, weep or wail until what came in goes back out. But emotions cannot put outside body what originated inside brain.

So, like an old vinyl record with a little scratch, I blink and think, blink and think. I think and think and think that my whole life stinks.