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First, I just want to reflect on what Dr. Grobstein's assertion that humans are not superior to other organisms because of our "storytellers."  This is an understanding that has not come naturally to me.  

I always assumed that humans were the culmination of some great master plan.  I'm not really sure why.  Perhaps my brain was inherently programmed to believe this.  Or perhaps there was some sort of cultural programming that was responsible (more on this next week?..)

If anyone else shares these beliefs... and would enjoy having them shattered... I would recommend Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.  I think a more appropriate title would be "a short history of the discoveries of science."  I just finished it a few weeks ago and it definitely gave me a few new stories to mull over.  

I wanted to post two quotes...  The first, from Bryson himself.

"We are so used to the notion of our own inevitability as life's dominant species that it is hard to grasp that we are here only because of timely extraterrestrial bangs and other random flukes.  The one thing we have in common with all other living things is that for nearly four billion years our ancestors have managed to slip through a series of closing doors every time we needed them to."

The second is from Ian Tattersal quoted in Bryson's book...

"One of the hardest ideas for humans to accept is that we are not the culmination of anything.  There is nothing inevitable about our being here.  It is part of our vanity as humans that we tend to think of evolution as a process that , in effect, was programmed to produce us." 

There were a lot of observations in Bryson's book to back up these statements, but I just wanted to get the general message here.  The storyteller is not some divine gift or possession of ultimate significance... It's just something we have...  Like an elephant has a trunk.

Also.... I just wanted to share a story from last weekend.  I think it might give us something to think about as we consider the interaction between the conscious and the unconscious.  

I ride the train in and out of Philly each Friday for volunteering.  As I was riding home last weekend, I sat down next to a woman who looked friendly enough.  It was rush hour so the train car was packed and another person eventually joined us.  I was sandwiched in the middle of a three person seat.  

As the train ride continued towards Bryn Mawr, the woman next to me began to have seemingly involuntary jerking fits with her limbs.  Her arm would twitch randomly and then stop.  I noticed it, but didn't give it much thought.  

A few stops down the rail, things escalated.  Her whole body started to twitch and she started making strange guttural noises.  She would have a fit of motion and sound, then calm down, readjust herself, and look out the window.  It was a very strange thing to observe... slightly frightening because she sounded so angry.  It was as if something in her just wanted to go on a screaming rant, but she was trying to keep her mouth closed.  Imagine trying to yell a string of angry obscenities but keeping your mouth closed.  That's what it looked like.    

By now most most everyone in our train car had noticed.  I just kind of sat there, palms sweaty, unsure of whether to ask if she was ok or just pretend I didn't notice and not call any more attention to her.  It came to my attention that there was a newsletter or something by my feet with headlines such as "Are you Crippled by Anxiety?" and "New Schizophrenia Breakthroughs!"  

Suddenly, at the Ardmore stop, after finishing one of her episodes, she calmly gathered her things and said in a pleasant voice, "This is my stop."  My and my seat partner let her by and she left.  

I didn't really know what to make of this whole experience at the time, but after a few people have suggested that mental illness might be a disconnect between the conscious and unconscious mind I have tried to think about it in these terms.  However, in this situation, it didn't so much seem like a disconnect as it seemed like her unconscious mind was trying to bubble out or escape and her conscious mind was holding it in.  I can definitely see how people from ages past might say she was possessed by a demon.  

Perhaps mental illness is not only a disconnect between storyteller and tacit knowledge (not that anyone suggested it was) but can also arise from a malfunctioning storyteller or a malfunctioning tacit knowledge.  Anyone else who might have interpretations of the experience... I'd love to hear them.