Biology 202

2006 Second Web Paper

On Serendip

What pulls us away from our thinking? What pulls us away from our seeing? Do we see our thinking? Do we think our seeing? Of course there are answers to these questions, but what about that thinking that we don't see, what about that seeing we don't think? That thinking that interferes with our thinking, that seeing that interferes over our seeing.

It is said that of thinking or thought; Action of using one's mind to produce thoughts, or convert symbolic responses to stimuli. (1) In psychology, the process of forming mental connections or bonds between sensations, ideas and memories. (2) But I am not speaking of either of these two definitions. There is a thinking that goes beyond both of these limitations. That type of thinking that comes not as a process, but as finished product and it is welcomed. It doesn't come often, but when it does it is welcomed. Like something no one else has thought of and you have that feeling.
I read something of that nature, in one of your papers when you wrote:

What I REALLY like is the light that comes into students' eyes when they suddenly realize
that something we're talking about makes a lot of sense, to them, and not only about what
whatever it is we're talking about, but also about a lot of other things, they've wondered
about and never quite understood. One reason I like that light so much is that I identify
with it: I really get a kick out of that feeling when it happens to me, and sometimes it
does, because something I've said to a student makes the student think of something I've never thought of before. A bigger reason, though why I like that light it means those students are THINKING.(3)

I must agree that is the way I feel. But I never connected it with anyone else. And I never thought of it as a process. I always thought of it as something more inside of me. Maybe like a gift.

Seeing can be seen in the same way. Sometimes you can look at something, and see what it is and know what it is, but you see also more of what it is. I don't know if that makes sense but it's what I mean. It's not like when two people look at the same thing and see something different, no this is completely different within that one person. They see what they see but they see more. I guess what falls in play here is the memory, which takes me back to point (1) But if it is something or someone I have never seen before would the memory still play apart? In that case my memory would play apart on what I am seeing along with the retina. The more I think about this, the more I try to write and still make sense of what I am thinking, in a way that I can be understood. I may not be writing what I am thinking. Thinking tends to get past me before I think it, but evidently not. I just think fast, which hinders my writing and my being understood.
I sat down to write about thinking and seeing . And it seems like I am doing both of them. Does thinking make me see better or does seeing make me think better? I can't get around this. It is not just physical seeing that I am talking about or am I, its separating of the two. I close my eyes and I still see, if I close them real tight I see the universe. See there I go thinking again. I even tried to find a meaning for seeing which would have been similar to the two I found on thinking, but what good is the meaning if I don't understand what I am looking up, seeing. The two on thinking I could comprehend and they made sense to me. But the process of seeing is a little more complex, or maybe it's not, I just don't have the knowledge of it.

So what is it that pulls us away from thinking? Is it other thinking, or just some distraction ? What is it that pulls us away from seeing? Is it more seeing, or just some distraction? Is thinking, and is seeing distractions in themselves? A blind man does not need to see to think, and a seeing man does always think.

Sources
1. Britannica..com
2. Britannica..com
3. serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_ edu/problem.html


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