I am sure you might wonder from time to time,”What the hell is that screwball up to now?” A fair question to be sure. Some of you poor souls have read all if not most of my epistles. I am not sure if you should be commended or committed. But to put on paper what is actually going on in Ted’s Head is not as easy as it sounds.

I really like to change my beliefs or premises. Maybe challenge is a better word so I don’t sound like a total flake. I am always amazed when someone runs for office that their writing or speeches from twenty or thirty years ago come under great scrutiny. We jump on them for any inconsistencies. Can you really say you feel exactly the same way about things as you did ten, twenty or thirty years ago? I hope not.

Now is the above waffling or doing some critical thinking? I’ll let you decide that, but to be alive I feel that I must be open to suggestion of new facts or interpretations. There is a theory of neuroplasticity that I believe makes sense. Basically your mind can learn new ways of thinking and acquire entirely different pathways. This is regenerative and useful in not only the physical sense for a stroke victim per se but also in the purely cognitive sense. Axons and dendrites are forming and reforming no matter how old. That’s a good thing.

This really scares some people. To have a time honored way of doing things threatened and possibly being considered faulty is beyond the realm. We get so cozy and comfortable in our personal easy chairs that a cocoon rather than open space becomes the norm. I have to push myself at times. I have to shake myself from repetitive doldrums. But the overriding aspect of all of this is that I and we can change. Your DNA doesn’t make you a pain in the ass or a good person. You do.

What? Come on. You don’t have any idea all the troubles I have seen. Indeed I am aware. I have picked myself up from some pretty ugly situations. But the resilience of the soul is probably the thing that intrigues me the most and at the same time gives me faith. I can rue the past or dream about the future but I tend to think in the present. Right now I am having too much fun writing and trying to verbalize thoughts we all have. I am trying to challenge you and me both. I don’t want to think about three paragraphs ago much less three years in time. Tomorrow? Who the hell knows. I might get hit by a truck. Rock on TTG. Rock on.

We sold our lovely old home at 701 Williams this fall.  I swore I would be taken out feet first of that one but I lied or didn’t give enough thought to my red line. We have totally changed our lifestyle.  We live in a condo. We lock the door and leave. Not our old friends just the domicile. Many of them think we are nuts. Well maybe just me and Kathy by association. My buddies Dick and Bill don’t understand our wanderlust. It’s just us.

It’s unknown but it is exciting. There is a mystery and vibrancy to life that keeps my poor brain going. I hope it never ends. One friend says he gets tired just hearing about all of my efforts. But it is not an effort but pure joy. Last fall I spent a few days with a dear friend and his fabulous new wife. We reminisced but also thought of all things cosmic. We peppered each other with questions and probes that some might take offense at. Everything was fair game and we all rose to the occasion. It simply felt great to be alive.

I learned so much. About them. About a sleepy town called Providence. Maybe it was Divine but it got my mind revved up about Denver. It’s risky to think this way. You mean I might not live in the greatest place in the world? Or at least know that there might be others? I listened to different slants on life and thought how cool. It wasn’t a threat to my credos but maybe taking a piece here or there could add new relevance. If this is crazy I am loving it.

I am reading a book called Superbrain. Not about a computer but us. Without getting evangelistic it is interesting to realize all the processes going on in this Corpus Delectable. Heart, lungs, nerves, intestines (Yuck!) all firing at different times but somehow making this crazy thing work. But as automatic as it sounds there are a gazillion points of input where we control. You want to feed your body or your mind garbage go ahead. Reality is not predestined but simply what we make of it. You can take the best or worst situations and view them positively or negatively.

This is #150. Who knows how many more before my feeble brain gives out? I shouldn’t be counting. I hope I have made some of you think. I hope I have brought a smile. I hope I have put a little fire in your belly. Lastly, I hope you realize how much your comments, support and even the criticisms have helped me get better at what I do. You keep me very much alive. I hope I have done the same. And that is what Ted’s Head is all about.

As always

Ted The Great.

Factoids:

This Thursday 1/23/14 marks our 43 wedding anniversary. Kathy is being nominated for a Purple Heart and Congressional Medal of Honor. Please support her.

The brain can actually heal itself. In treating people with severe brain damage or even partial lobotomies it has been demonstrated that different parts of the brain have taken on new functions to compensate for the missing part. I still have hope.

The human brain has 100 billion neurons. They multiply in a fetus at a rate of 250,000 per minute during the early stages of pregnancy. We have over 10,000 taste buds. There are over 40 million olfactory receptor cells.

We tend to reinforce our beliefs and respond positively to information doing so. We think about how information fits into our puzzle rather thinking about a new and different picture. This actually has a name….narrow minded thinking.

Flip Flops

Lincoln said he would never split the union over slavery.

Michael Bloomberg was a Democrat, then Republican, then???

Bill Clinton said he never had sex with that woman.

Bill Belichik  thought Wes Welker was s beautiful person..

Richard Sherman was sane.

“The mind that opens itself to a new idea never returns to its original size”… Albert Einstein