Mind and Body

I was thinking about something that happened a long time ago: I was walking out of the Bryan Center on a hot summer day with the woman I was dating at the time, and I had just gotten a Snickers Ice Cream Bar  (which was brand-new at the time), and after taking the first bite I literally stopped in my tracks, overwhelmed with pleasure. Some of it was probably the novelty, and of course they are really good - and it was summer in North Carolina, so anything cold would have been good. But the woman I was with was surprised at the extent to which I was really enjoying that ice cream bar, and although I don't remember her exact words I know she was amused and really didn't know what to make of it.

I was thinking of this because - ha, thinking! - I spend a lot of time in my own head. When I'm by myself I'm usually having conversations with people who aren't there (rehearsing what I want to say, sorting through what I feel I need to say, just telling them about things that are important to me at the moment) - or just arguing with myself (and it's really disappointing when I feel I lose those arguments). [Part of me wants to go into the details of the latest argument I've been having with myself, but not now - it has to do with inconsistent propositions, and I don't feel like going into the logic or the specific propositions.] Or I'm thinking about a quote or an idea, or a song playing in my head (which reminds me of another story about a woman in Quaker meeting thinking I was so spiritual, moving according to the Holy Spirit - davening - when really I was thinking about how to playing different pieces of a song in different times signatures). But what I'm not usually doing is paying attention to the world outside my head.

This is not to say I'm not gaining information about the world: when I was a freshman at the above unnamed university, I was a resource for the other guys on my hall - "Hey, what's going on around campus tonight?" They knew I rarely went out in the evenings, but for some reasons all the signs hanging around advertising different events would work their way into my head, and I could tell them about the different speakers and concerts and frat parties. (They seemed mostly interested in the frat parties, and I don't think I ever went to any except for the frat I eventually joined.)

*Anyhow, I live in my head: that should be no surprise. But occasionally things will grab my attention, and then I really, really enjoy them. I don't typically think of myself as a sensualist, but maybe I am - an epicure, even. Not that things need to be too fancy: I was floored by Quiznos Veggie Guacamole sub a few years ago, when I  me and my ex-fiancee was were moving my  our stuff from Indiana to New York (and pushing myself to my physical limits - everything tasted soooooo good that week for both of us).  I think that's also why I like to turn up the Rolling Stones really loud. Hm, I fear this is turning into one of those obscurely self-referential posts: I'll stop now. [*I hate it when people write me out of their stories, and I wrote my ex-financee out of this post and shouldn't have. She was there, and had similar experiences.]

This my "green doodle," part of a series with the "blue doodle" I posted earlier. I probably should come up with a better title, especially since I foresee doing at least a few more of these, and doing them more seriously (rather than just fiddling on copy paper). Inspired in part by the work of Josef Albers, but his titles (I'm thinking primarily of Proto-Form B - since he did more with lines than with curves) aren't much better.