Last week in Top Comments, I wrote about a desperate measure that baseball teams (yes, brillig, sportsing!) mired in protracted hitting slumps might take to try to bring their hitters out of it, after everything else seems to have failed. What they do is grab all of the bats the team uses when they’re on offense, and scramble them, so that no one can find his or her bat, which they aren’t being able to hit with anyway. It is a desperate variable to change, in the hitting scheme, but they’ve already tried all other variables they can think of, so, why not?! (It really changes quite a few variables, not just one.)
Of course, there is no more guarantee of success with scrambling the bats than there is with any of the other measures they take for hitting slumps, but occasionally it can have surprising results. There is some hidden power within us that responds to dramatic change, sometimes. That resets the equilibrium or something.
I am no expert on Alzheimer’s, but I seem to recall folks saying that certain kinds of brain stimulation can help postpone or hold-off onset of the hideous disease. Bilingualism may be one example, possibly because it may increase brain metabolic response in certain brain circuits. Perhaps it is something about being compelled to follow different thought processes for bilingual engagement.
But if that’s so, then perhaps other things that change basic assumptions and habit pathways can have a similar beneficial effect.
I mentioned scrambling the bats, because, to me, the current situation seems like a huge societal reset. I have read of how the reduced activity has ‘quietened’ the world, so scientific instruments can record sounds with much greater clarity and sensitivity. I look forward to the dramatic science that will come in the next years because of experiments no scientist could ever have scripted. Not JUST in Pandemia. In many fields.
Or how some people in India can see the Himalayas for the first time in decades. Pretty dramatic effects! (I can’t see the Himalayas, but I can certainly see how much clearer the air is. It’s dramatic.)
Experiential changes have us all scrambling, in ways. The things we have ‘always done,’ we can no longer do. At least, not in the ways we have historically done them. Many of us have more ‘free time,’ to explore new life options and possibilities. Many of us have had to mobilize our creative sides to make things work in different ways. To relate in different ways.
I thought about it because of an experience I had when I was much younger.
When I was … very new to this planet, seat belt usage in automobiles wasn’t what it is now. Seat belts themselves were very different. Basically a waist strap, one, nothing over the shoulder to restrain the upper torso in the event of … dramatic deceleration. There were no laws mandating seat belt usage. There were some who used them, but my feeling is that the percentage was comparatively low. If science existed to document improved safety, I was not aware of it, nor do I recall it ever being discussed.
But the time came when the society moved in the direction of understanding the life-saving possibilities of consistent and conscientious seat belt usage. And laws were passed requiring their usage, with consequences (however mild) for non-compliance.
About that time I was buying a new vehicle. Until then, my seat belt usage had been nearly non-existent. So, I thought, well, with this new vehicle, everything is going to be different anyway. So if I make it a habit to wear the seat belt every day, it will be only a tiny change in the middle of a great adjustment.
That was a hypothesis on my part, and an experiment, but it absolutely worked. I have never again had any difficulty with wearing seat belts, and my wearing of them has been perfectly consistent and reliable from that moment. It transfers to other vehicles just fine. (I do confess to unsnapping airline seat belts before the plane comes to a complete stop at the gate, sue me.)
I mention it because, in times of great upheaval, there is possibility for making powerful changes we have long known would be beneficial, but couldn’t seem to make, because such changes - in an atmosphere of familiarity and inertia - are just too monumental for us to follow through. But it takes a great deal to be monumental in a time like this. So the changes can be easier.
I have no suggestions for changes you might consider. Those are for you to contemplate, or not. I’m not critical or judgmental about it. It can be an opportunity. And finding those is always a little blessing.
On to tonight’s comments!
Top Mojo for yesterday, April 12th 2020, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
Top Pictures for yesterday, April 12th 2020. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!
