I'm So Left Brained

I first must warn you this is hardly profound or insightful (am I ever??) but you may get a kick out of it all anyways.

So in my neuropsychology class it had been suggested that people have assymetrical facial expressions. I just reviewed about 20 pictures of me and I am now convinced that the right side of my face is more expressive than my left. I have a "good side." And if I remember right, facial expressions are contralateral (but it could be ipsilateral) and so this is just confirmation that I am left-brained (logical).

If you want to test this out go to my profile and look at my picture (my right side is on the left in the picture). If you can't tell by my smile then look at the creases in my cheek.

Actually this may explain why I think I look better in pictures than I do in the mirror. In pictures my right side of my face is on the left side but in the mirror my right side is on the right side. Now our right hemisphere processes facial expressions better than our left hemisphere. And since the left visual field (which would see the right side of my face in pictures) connects with the right hemisphere, it would make sense that I would appear happier and better looking in pictures than in the mirror. Haha - this all must sound so vain!!! Well I found it interesting and so you may too.

I should not I just watched A Scanner Darkly, a Philip K. Dick novel turned movie, that talks about split brain stuff which sorta triggered my desire to check this out for myself.

Not Crazy, Just Insane

I often wonder what it means when people refer to another's behavior as being "crazy"? If you ask them you will get a variety of responses ranging from doing risky behavior to following their dreams to hearing voices. Obviously there is no consensus on what constitutes crazy behavior. And, in my opinion, any time a word has such a vague meaning we should be hesitant to use.

Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." While I don't think we need to start thinking of ourselves as crazy or insane, I do think it can help us when we recognize that we do things that might be a little crazy - or perhaps irrational is a better term.

I think of all the times I have thrown a tantrum in the hopes that I will make somebody listen to me and how rarely it works. I think of all the times I've procrastinated only to be miserably stressed out later. And the list of old mistakes can go on and on. Those mistakes would certainly qualify under Einstein's definition of insanity.

I like to admit that I'm a little insane. While I don't think calling myself crazy is helpful (because it is so vague) I know what I mean when I say I'm a little insane. This kind of joking self-deprecation keeps me humble and eases the discomfort I feel around my mistakes. And if I can laugh about it, then I can share about it and allow others the chance to encourage me to change.

I'm not crazy, just insane.