(Written: October 31, 2015)

Halloween, Schmalloween!

I must be crazy. Actually, I know I’m crazy, Today I just feel nuttier than normal. “Why?” you ask. Because today is Halloween and I don’t care. Who in their right mind doesn’t care about Halloween? I told you, I’m not in my right mind, I’m nuts. In fact, I sometimes make a fruitcake look sane. It’s not that I’ve always not cared about Halloween. Just a few years ago I was besotted with the holiday, making all kinds of Halloweeny paper crafts and hoping the clock would stop ticking until I finished them. I even bought candy for the kids I knew would not be coming. Later, I ate it all and gained nary a pound. Ah ha!

Like all kids, I used to love Halloween. I had one of those talented mothers who fashioned wonderful costumes from aluminum foil, sparklies, and thread. When I was eight, I went as a nurse and wore my mother’s nursing cape—navy on the outside and gold on the inside of very sturdy wool. I felt so grown up, looking like mother, who still did private duty nursing on occasion. Unfortunately, I ended up getting pneumonia. It was too cold for a heavy wool nursing cape of navy and gold that year. Days later I went by ambulance to the hospital where I was outfitted with an oxygen tent. I felt awful but thought the tent was pretty cool. It’s not like now where they just stick a little thing into your nose that pumps in oxygen—not in 1954. Yes, that makes me 69, although I could swear I was only 27 three weeks ago. I swear to you I was—at least my mind, if not my body. So, I sit here by my lonesome at my computer, a headache threatening, hoping no kids show up since I didn’t buy candy this year. And I’m keeping a watchful eye on Midnight so that he doesn’t manage to sneak out. Not good for a black cat to be out on Halloween. Not good at all!

Okay, getting down to brass tacks, what is this blog about and why should you spend your time perusing it? The answer is sneakily snuck into the title, via analogy. My life is (mostly) a mess. I am (mostly) a mess. I had this wild and crazy idea that maybe going public might provide support for me to surmount “non-productive” behaviors and get my bupkis out of the damned soup! Since I’m a big fan of a “win-win” philosophy, I’m also hoping, dear reader, that my travails, troubles, woes, and successes might provide some insight and encouragement for you, too, or at least a bit of levity, as you deal w/ your own “soup.”

One of the things on my “bucket list,” (how well that concept has caught on, eh) is to write a memoir. I know that sounds on the narcissistic side as I’m basically no one, but since I no longer have any family, the thought of dying and leaving nothing behind for no one, is just depressing. I mean, I may be no one special, but I am someone, and I’ve lived. I don’t want all those funny, zany, scary, insane, heart-warming memories to just go poof and blow away with the breeze. Besides, I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but boring has never been one of them. So, I’m writing my memoir as part of this blog, mixed in with current efforts to get my act together—that’s the idea. Oh, and since I’m an amateur photographer, watercolorist, and crafter, I even have some nice visuals to accompany my clap trap.

So, dear reader, come enjoy the soup!

Thinking Styles...And Yours Is???

It's been months now since I wrote my last post and I admit to feeling less squirrely and more pensive—more like the educational neuropsychologist that I am. Technically, my PhD (obtained in 2007 at age 61) is in "Special Studies in Education" but that says little other than that it was granted from the School of Education (of Capella University, a fully accredited online school). This major was intended for those of us who wanted to take our non-required courses outside of the School of Education. I took all of mine from the School of Psychology.

Since a PhD is a research degree leading to the dissertation—the student's first "real" research study—its topic becomes one's academic pursuit. Mine was about film, specifically commercial, fictional cinematic stories and how they could (and should) be used for educational (rather than entertainment) purposes. It's interesting how I chose this topic but I'll leave that story for another time.

My "soup" for today is made from a left brain, academic recipe that evolved from thinking about thinking—specifically two different styles that I've dubbed "stovepipe thinking" and "lateral thinking." So, why should you care one fig about such a thing? Because both styles relate to the polarized political landscape we find ourselves in. Don't you wonder why the left-leaning and right-leaning voters think and behave as they do? If so, then dear friend, read on!

Think of two pipes. One is vertical and goes up and down. The other is horizontal and runs "along the ground." Now think about these pipes containing "plugs" of different stuff, up and down, or along the ground, depending on their orientation. Now, consider these plugs to consist of bits of information—facts, opinions, or even feelings. Now assume that it takes more energy to move from one piece of information in the vertical pipe than it does between the different plugs in the horizontal pipe, because of gravity. Although it is easier to go down in the vertical pipe, it takes more energy to move back up. Still with me? Good! Also, assume that distance doesn't eat up energy when moving along the horizontal pipe. Not being a "hard" scientist, I don't know whether it does or not, so let's just assume that it doesn't, for the sake of argument.

For the "stovepipe" thinker, it is easy to stuff new bits of information (or plugs) on the top of what's there, but when it comes to linking bits already in the pipe to the new information, it takes a lot of energy to move from the relevant older information to the new information just added. Often, this thinker doesn't bother to expend this energy. However, for the "lateral" thinker, whose information pipe is horizontal, it's comparatively easy to zip from one bit of information in the pipe to another, located elsewhere. Do you begin to see where I'm going with this analogy? Great! 

As a lateral thinker of the liberal persuasion, I'm often—as you, too, may be—amazed at the frequency of hypocrisy I find amongst the conservative right wing. "How could he/she say "x" when only a year ago he/she said "y?" What a hypocrite! But as a stovepipe thinker, this conservative person simply is not used to relating their various information bits to each other because of energy requirements and their desire to "conserve." Therefore, relevant bits remain intrinsically separated in the pipe—at least until a strong enough motivation comes along to invest the energy necessary to look for a link. But when this happens, often this conservative feels so embarrassed that they didn't bother to search their pipe to find out, that they make up (often silly) excuses for the discordance, even denying there is one at all. And that makes lateral thinkers absolutely nuts! 

The next question is what makes someone into either a stovepipe or a lateral thinker. But since this post is getting awfully long,  I'll leave that answer for another "academic soup" day!