You Could Be Another Lincoln

Since we picked our brains last week (hah! hidden pun caught me by surprise!) I've managed to honor the needs of mine, in spite of the huge bite of life I have been chewin' on. How about you?

I've been taking my fish oil, eating nuts and using olive oil aplenty, challenging my brain with new research and unearthing my old copywriting chops. I've given the ol' noggin a rest here and there, too. Watching Ken Burns' documentary, The National Parks, on the DVR has had a wonderful calming PLUS inspiring effect. In fact, the subtitle to that film is "America's Best Idea" and it got me to thinkin'...

(flashback to lead up to the connection)
The landscape was already there, but the thought that the country could own the land for public enjoyment as parks, and preserve its wildness for the future, turned out to be genius. The idea wasn't without opposition, and its execution wasn't simple or easy. But in the end, the National Parks system of the United States is a treasure not just for our nation, but also for our planet. The idea is gem. The parks showcase the evolution of Earth and return us to our roots as a species. It's pretty incredible. Thank goodness someone followed through on this.

All that from an idea, which blossomed and grew and was shared and accepted. And now due to Burns' documentary, is hopefully more appreciated by masses. Good idea for Burns, too.

But ideas like these don't come along every day, to just anybody, right? Wrong. It's the exact opposite. Ideas do come along every day, more than every day, and they come along to you. They come through your brain, which is responsible for making you figure out and do the actions that bring your ideas to life. Actually, most of the thoughts you have in general could be called ideas. Unless you only think in facts.

Like, say you're going to make lasagna for dinner this weekend. Knowing how to make lasagna step by step, or digging out the recipe and getting the list of ingredients together are tasks for your fact based brain. But the original thought you had wasn't a fact. It's not as if lasagna is a must, or a legal issue, or a deadline. It's simply an option.

So why are you making it? Is it because you've had such a taste for it but never tried making it yourself? Because you thought you mightbe comforted by a hearty family recipe on a cold autumn Sunday? Because it's someone's birthday and you want surprise them? See, these thoughts are ideas: they turn making lasagna into more than a task--now it's an occasion! A tradition or a desire met or an experiment.

Ideas are the stuff of a rich, rewarding, evolving life. Just like the idea to create national parks as treasures for all time, the idea to create lasagna this weekend is a gem. It might not change the future of our nation, but it will change the rest of your week, maybe the rest of your life, depending on why you had the idea in the first place and what you do with it after. (Tip: eat plenty of olive oil on your salad and bread to offset the saturated fat in the cheese, and add some spinach to the ricotta.)

You know, you could win a woman's heart if you make her a lasagna on her birthday. You could finally heal some secret part of you when you learn that you can cook like your grandma after all. If you thought of it, and you did something about it, then it matters. It's part of your life now!

Some of us are very action oriented and energetic. Some of us are logical and pragmatic. Some of us are wistful and laid back. But all of us could use a little lasagna and a nice view of a pine forest once in a while.

Let your ideas through. Let them blossom and shine. Believe in them. Your brain isn't only filled with facts and blood vessels. It's your thoughts-as-ideas that make your life unique. They make you, you, because they are how you decide to do things and view things. This week, recognize the personal side of your brain for all its worth, beyond the stuff it knows and beyond its role in your anatomy.

Give your personal brain the recognition it needs, to realize what it has had, all along.

Scarecrow:
I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin' while my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.
I'd unravel every riddle for any individ'le, in trouble or in pain.
Dorothy:
With the thoughts you'll be thinkin' you could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.
Scarecrow: Oh, I could tell you why the ocean's near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I'd sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin' my head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.