博客存档 - Mistaken Identity

015 Earth Suit

6/25/2025

015 Earth Suit

To prep for this blog it would be helpful if your journey has encountered the comedy TV series “3rd Rock From The Sun” which aired from 1996 to 2001. Quick summary: 4 extraterrestrials attempt to live as a normal family outside of Cleveland. They remember their mission to explore the human culture and life, yet are bound inside human bodies. They engage in remarkable humor at every step trying to work and live as ‘natives’.

Let’s prepare for a trip. The destination is a warm tropical beach. Yes, we have to get there somehow; equally important is what we might need to bring with us to enjoy the sun and surf. We will call these ‘prep items’ for the trip.

Another trip plan: let’s go to the moon. A few details involved in planning might be how to survive in a completely different environment. Even the simplest of items such as air to breathe and food to eat, protection from the lack of air pressure, extreme light and dark, and many 1000’s of other details quickly emerge, some of which are known and many are yet to discover. Without the basic ‘prep items’ it is a no go for sure and a no go for return to our earthly home. The modern spacesuit quickly emerges as a necessary medium for survival and inter-planetary travel.

So, with that aside let’s look at our own earth-suit and its journey. Our suit has a biological beginning and end. We begin as a helpless mammal in need of food and protection for many years, during which, if at any time left uncared for, the end of life would be certain. There is energy (life) as demonstrated by motion and sound, the thrashing of arms and the seemingly painful vocal sounds that accompany our newborns. It would appear that the infant is not even aware that it exists. Language is yet to occur. Repetitive surroundings of mother, milk, and warmth grow the child along amongst random sleep cycles. Growth continues during our life.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the brain tissue is full of neurons at birth but the interconnections are few. Pathways don’t exist, yet. The brain is an open book awaiting life’s interaction and subsequent programming with the environment. Learning a language is easy when you are young and can create new connections. The body, not the brain, is provided with an abundance of sensors surrounding the surface of the skin that continuously sends environmental input. Eyes, ears, nose, and mouth add to the various instructional sources of our ‘home’ on this planet. Pathways do develop, over time, as trillions of inputs are sent to this ‘blob’ of watery tissue. Habits, language, perceptions, beliefs, identity grow.

An analogy to this kind of growth might be useful. Let’s take a toy that needs a battery for its awakening. This toy learns about its surroundings like a self-programming vacuum clearer. The width and breadth of this toy’s learning depends on feedback from its experiences and its design potential. Is there a purpose to the toy? How does this toy interact with other similar self programming toys? One thing we do know for certain: if the battery is removed, the toy comes to a halt.

That’s it. Nothing more or less. Humans are self-programming, ever evolving from culture, language, experience, behavior and interaction with all the other inhabitants of this ‘3rd rock from the sun’.

Oh, and one more thing. A few introspective thoughts…

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Could the ‘we’ in the above toy analogy actually be the energy source for the human?

Is it ‘we’ that have been placed in an earth-suit?

When the ‘earth-suit’ no longer exists what happens to the ‘we’?

Jaques (in Act II, Scene VII, of William Shakespeare’s “As you like it” ) once commented

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players”.

Too simple to be true?

A podcast accompanies this blog post. Click here to listen, or click Podcast Icon at the left. This podcast discusses and introduces Inner Space and its importance on our Journey

014 Communication

6/24/2025

014 Communication

Many people around the world consume coffee each day. About 2/3 of the adult population (220 million) in the United States consume over 3 cups of coffee per day. Clearly the US leads the world in coffee consumption. However, this blog is not about consumption, health benefits, brewing preferences, gender consumption ratios, types of coffee, seasonality, workplace versus home use, economic impact, fair trade, or a host of other metrics in the rapidly expanding acceptance of coffee drinking around the world.
Now that we can put away the drinking of coffee let’s discuss how our bodies send signals to the brain about coffee and its aroma.

Sensors on the tongue are quite limited in describing the coffee world to our brain. Remember we have 5 types of sensors ( sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami) ) and only about 2,000 - 10,000 total buds on our tongues. A good article summarizing our taste buds can be found here.
Yet again, this blog is really not about the part that the tongue plays in our sensation of coffee drinking. The real ‘taste’ comes from the aroma.

There are 800-1000 chemicals in coffee, many of which appear in the vapor phase, presenting the consumer of coffee a more than pleasing experience. The ‘taste’ of coffee continues.

Inside our nasal passages, sometimes referred to as our sinuses (which means cavities) are approximately 5-6 million olfactory sensors. (Just for comparison, take this link that compares a human’s sensory capacity to 4 other animals - Bears Rule!)

The BIG POINT is that what ‘tastes great’ is not because of our tongue’s taste buds. As the molecules of a scent attach to our various millions of olfactory sensors electrical signals are generated. These signals are transmitted to various collection points in our brain. Our brain sums up these signals, compares them to previous sums of signals, and says “Great coffee”. If we had held our nose closed with our fingers (or had our nose stopped with sinus blockage) and taken the same sip we would say “Not Great Coffee”.

You’ve probably seen wine connoisseurs swirling and sniffing their wine in a large open top glass. This is done to detect a wine’s aromas. Approximately 80% of our ‘taste’ is from the accompanying aroma. What is not so well known is that one can increase our ability to determine the ingredients in an aroma by practice sniffing, waiting a bit, imagining, thinking, remembering, and doing this over and over. Great coffee experts are a lot like wine experts in this manner. The nose of wine can be a nose of food, just give it some practice.

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Is it possible that in a fast paced world we have lost our ability to sense great vegetables, breads, meats, desserts from lesser ones? Deep tastes than linger allowing the body to feedback it’s approval?
Something in this restaurant smells delicious - good sign that a successful meal awaits.
Do we sometimes not take the time to understand another’s viewpoints? We don’t swirl their thoughts around in our head long enough to separate the premise and the conclusion? the journey that our friend has undertaken.
Hopefully we listen more and speak less, allowing the aroma of our fellow journeyers to enhance our own.

013 Sheep R Us

6/22/2025

013 Sheep R Us
Let’s start out with a question:

What is the meaning of 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 and 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31?
If you have been or are enrolled in dental school you would quickly recognize this is a chart of a person who has had their wisdom teeth removed. Back right top molar is number 1 and going around the top of the mouth until number 16 and you arrive at the left top back molar. Immediately below 16 is 17 on the bottom left of one’s mouth. Counting around the bottom teeth from left to right one ends up on number 32, the back right wisdom tooth. (If you have any wisdom teeth remaining.)
32 is a number that puts us in a direct relationship with sheep. They also have 32 teeth, although not the same kinds of teeth as we have. They do not have canine or upper incisors. To allow the sheep to graze, cut, pull grasses and chew the cud they have extra molars and their upper front ‘teeth’ are not really teeth but hardened skin that allows for their eating habits.

In this blog read the following passages and wherever you see ‘sheep’ try substituting ‘people’. Also if you read ‘people’ substitute ‘sheep’. It’s a great way of introducing our human/sheep similarity. Allow some variance of substitution since not all humans (and sheep) fit generalizations.

Sheep have no sense of direction, just follow whomever.
If the first few jump over a rope, and subsequently the rope is cut down, the remaining will jump over the rope anyway.
Sheep are a prey, their eyesight allows early warning of predators, but their design is not great for escape.
Sheep run away as a group - security in numbers - something sets the flock in motion and they all blindly follow.
Sheep can become ‘cast down’. This means when their short legs cannot touch the ground in a situation where the sheep is laying on its side the sheep will bloat up and die. They must have a shepherd to right them up.
Sheep have been and are prized possessions.
Sheep have a sense of hearing that allows them to recognize only their shepherds voice. They will not follow a stranger.
Sheep cannot lick their wounds and need a shepherd for hygienic care.
Sheep do not realize that they stink. They will drink from any available water source, clean or dirty.
Sheep, by their design, do not carry burdens.
Yes, a quick note about goats: they are known for being independent, opinionated, and curious at best - destructive, vulgar, and dangerous at worst.

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There are numerous references in writings about sheep needing a shepherd. In what form does the shepherd appear today in a human’s journey?
Is there evidence in human behavior that we continue to mimic routines and rituals that have no present day meaning?
Do humans successfully carry burdens? Or is a burden-less life a goal in itself?
Do we recognize a human as a priceless being?

012 Incognito

6/7/2025

012 Incognito

This is an interesting word. From the Italian, we put together a prefix that means ‘not’ and a root word that means ‘recognized or known’. An insightful, descriptive word that is frequently encountered in our language.

Let’s suppose you are talking with a new employee who is affable, polite, and interesting. The discussion continues to reduce our suspicions of this stranger. Over many company meetings and working together on projects, a friendship develops. There was absolutely nothing to hint that the new employee was working ‘incognito’ as an industrial spy.

In the above paragraph, we didn’t see that our colleague was working incognito. We sometimes assume things about people based on stereotypes or preconceptions. At times, we don’t even realize that we have these biases. Our suspicions of others have many triggers: different language, unique or opposing attitudes and views, even the type of clothing that is over/under/differently worn. We don’t realize that these persons may be an incognito part of our journey.

Are we predisposed to suspect that some animals, plants, people, and thoughts may be harmful to us? Yes, it seems that way. If you add cautions from the culture, political directives, science ‘facts’, religious edicts, and folklore handed down from generations, there is certainly a disinclination to accept something that is different. On the one hand, this ‘auto rejection’ has built-in directional safeguards guiding one to a safe haven. However, these predisposed tenets often prevent one from ‘hearing or perceiving’ a crucial, directional shift of human consciousness on any given subject.

It seems that our world today has billions of audible, visible, and published thoughts and viewpoints on limitless topics. Consuming great quantities of indiscriminate information seems to have the same consequence as overeating: continuous need for reinforcement, lethargy, addiction to narrow views, and somewhat helpless in realizing that their consumption choices have harmed their life’s journey.

An excerpt from Mark Twain might apply here (the word Journey substituted for emphasis):

“Travel (Journey) is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. “
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It

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Physics teaches us that there is a resting force that must be overcome to move an object from a static to a kinetic position. May we expect parts of our journey to be similar?

How do we expand our built-in tendencies to ‘not journey’ e.g. stay within our comfort zone?

Have you even been asked a kind of question by a child or person and given a quick, standard reply? Not listening to the ‘incognito’ aspect of the messenger?

Is Journey an antidote for: “they have ears and can’t hear, eyes and can’t see”?

015 Earth Suit

014 Communication

013 Sheep R Us

012 Incognito

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