Grey Matter

In one of Emily Dickinson's poems, #598 , she starts talking about the human brain. This poem is a bit different in some of the others I have read from her. I believe she is trying to point out to people that the power of the brain is much larger than people believe. Science tells us that we use only about ten percent of our brain potential. Maybe this is because most people don’t regularly exercise their brains enough on a daily basis. "The Brain - is wider than the sky...", she explains, and "The Brain is deeper than the sea...", she laments. ".Emily Dickinson was a very smart woman, as you can see in her writing. Perhaps Emily knew how to tap in to her full brain potential. She certainly seemed to be able to imagine how certain things played out around the world, without actually experiencing any of the situations. Maybe the fact that she wrote many poems, which definitely takes imagination and the ability to control those, helped her to use more of her brain potential.

Think for Yourself, Question the Majority.

"You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books, you shall not look through my eyes, nor take things from me, you shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self." - Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself".

Though this poem touches many different topics, I found this particular verse important. Walt Whitman put this vital information perfectly in his poem "Song of Myself". There are so many people in this world that have a tendency to believe anything they hear or read as fact. What would have happened if everyone had listened to the south by not abolishing slavery? How destructive would have Hitler been if the world just took his words as legitimate when describing Jews?

Thinking for yourself isn't often as easy as one might think. It's often hard to go against the norm when the masses accept it as factual information. Take a look at what happened to Galileo back in his day. He went against the church's idea that there was a Geocentric Universe. He stopped listening to what the masses believed, took another look for himself, and found out that everybody was wrong. When he started to teach his theories he was shunned from the church and was put in confinement. The church made it apparent as well that anyone teaching this theory of a Heliocentric Universe would serve jail time and be shunned from the church.

My point is that you shouldn't always take the information you get from books, friends, government, and even teachers as the end-all fact. Take everything with a grain of salt. If everyone listened to the south, slavery could have lasted much longer in the US. If people believed Hitler there might not be anymore Jews. If Galileo hadn't of thought for himself we might still think we are the center of the universe. I believe this is what Whitman was trying to get across to his readers.

You must think for yourself, and question the majority.

This is a test blog.