Do you really care about who’s arguing with whom? With squabbles among celebrities, for example? If so, why so? Do you want to be just like them?
Those brains of ours are just like cars that line up in the traffic. Entrained, they are, though separate cars, obliged to go quite slow. With engines running and drivers fuming, each wastes its fuel just by sitting.—Okay, enough of the sing-songy prose; that’s not how the rest here goes.
Mirror Neurons
I don’t think I needed neuroscientists to tell me that my brain had mirror neurons. I recognized their effect long ago, first as a teenager with poor high-jumping skills competing at a track meet and then as a yawner, yawning after seeing someone else yawn, and finally as a smiler, smiling in the midst of others’ laughter. Made me wonder back then how much of me was really me. We see; we imitate. As I stood and watched competitors jump, I noticed that my own body reacted as though I were jumping. It wasn’t much, just a leg twitch, a partial jumping motion. And, of course, yawning and smiling—those imitative actions are self evident. Want another example? Watch a baby’s face when you say a long “Ohhhhhhh.” Watch a golfer or a baseball player swing, a boxer punch, a juggler juggle…
To imitate Macbeth:
Imitating, imitating, imitating
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
In short, much of what we do is in imitation of others. And much of what we believe, likewise. It’s tough to separate out that which is the individual in us when so much of what we are is a shadow of others.
Mirror Responses
It seems that in our addiction to social media and 24/7 news, we seek to activate those mirror neurons. If you read through news stories or listen to entertainment reports, you’ll note that some petty controversy, one wholly unrelated to your life, pops up here or there, often a tale of idiots or sometimes an argument between two celebrities from any walk of life. You might stumble across an accusation of ill treatment of employees by someone famous, an argument among British royals, or a controversial tweet on X. Whatever it is, it really has nothing to do with you. Maybe in your addiction to social media and 24/7 news, you consciously seek to activate those mirror neurons buried in your subconscious mind.
So why get your emotions fluffed up in imitation of someone else? Why raise your blood pressure when you aren’t personally involved? Stop viewing that which you will mirror to your own emotional detriment. The imitation is guaranteed. That’s how our brains work.
Just know that in seeking out that which is, in fact, irrelevant to your life and well being, you are unnecessarily filling your mind with sound and fury that signify nothing that is truly about you.
Those brains of ours are just like cars that line up in the traffic. Entrained, they are, though separate cars, obliged to go quite slow. With engines running and drivers fuming, each wastes its fuel just by sitting.—Okay, enough of the sing-songy prose; that’s not how the rest here goes.
Mirror Neurons
I don’t think I needed neuroscientists to tell me that my brain had mirror neurons. I recognized their effect long ago, first as a teenager with poor high-jumping skills competing at a track meet and then as a yawner, yawning after seeing someone else yawn, and finally as a smiler, smiling in the midst of others’ laughter. Made me wonder back then how much of me was really me. We see; we imitate. As I stood and watched competitors jump, I noticed that my own body reacted as though I were jumping. It wasn’t much, just a leg twitch, a partial jumping motion. And, of course, yawning and smiling—those imitative actions are self evident. Want another example? Watch a baby’s face when you say a long “Ohhhhhhh.” Watch a golfer or a baseball player swing, a boxer punch, a juggler juggle…
To imitate Macbeth:
Imitating, imitating, imitating
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
In short, much of what we do is in imitation of others. And much of what we believe, likewise. It’s tough to separate out that which is the individual in us when so much of what we are is a shadow of others.
Mirror Responses
It seems that in our addiction to social media and 24/7 news, we seek to activate those mirror neurons. If you read through news stories or listen to entertainment reports, you’ll note that some petty controversy, one wholly unrelated to your life, pops up here or there, often a tale of idiots or sometimes an argument between two celebrities from any walk of life. You might stumble across an accusation of ill treatment of employees by someone famous, an argument among British royals, or a controversial tweet on X. Whatever it is, it really has nothing to do with you. Maybe in your addiction to social media and 24/7 news, you consciously seek to activate those mirror neurons buried in your subconscious mind.
So why get your emotions fluffed up in imitation of someone else? Why raise your blood pressure when you aren’t personally involved? Stop viewing that which you will mirror to your own emotional detriment. The imitation is guaranteed. That’s how our brains work.
Just know that in seeking out that which is, in fact, irrelevant to your life and well being, you are unnecessarily filling your mind with sound and fury that signify nothing that is truly about you.
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