“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.”
-Dr. Seuss
The following story was written and shared by Jedidiah Jenkins on Instagram and boy did it (and the rest of his post) make me think:
A penguin, with the head of a French bulldog, busted into a 7/11 and demanded peanut M&Ms. She spoke perfect English, with a sandy voice like Sophia Bush. The clerk gasped and said he would call the police. The penguin-dog became enraged and started running around the counter. Her body wobbled back and forth like a teetering bowling pin as she ran. The human easily escaped.
Okay, now just like Jed did in his post, I’m going to ask you to step outside of the story with me for a moment:
As you read that paragraph, you imagined a place you’ve never been to, beings you’ve never seen, and a scene that couldn’t even really happen.
How? Simply by reading it. Or as Jed put it, by reading “tiny black marks called letters…created by pixels on this screen”.
Your brain took those marks, grouped them into words, strung them into sentences, and reinterpreted them as images that came together as a story. In other words, your brain transformed a paragraph full of pixels into a talking, teetering penguin-dog.
I’ll close with Jed’s final thought, because it’s perfect:
“The human brain is amazing. Life is amazing. That’s all. Have a good day.”
While thinking about one’s own brain while reading those black lines I can’t overlook the awe I’m in of the brain so free to wander that thinks up such a story as this.
I agree, Cindy! I think that’s the biggest reason why I felt so inspired to re-share his post. I found his thought process SO interesting! 😀