Can You Turn Your Brain Off?

I wish I had the ability to "turn off" my brain like my daughter.  Here is the story on how I discovered how she turns her brain off.

I picked Meredith up from swim practice and she was very excited to tell me that she was able to hold her breath for a whole length of the pool for the first time.  Her Dad, being a former swimmer, taught her some techniques to help her accomplish this goal.  On the way home, she said, "It's really easy if you just put your mind to it...Actually, you just turn your mind off."

Of course I then had to ask her if Merebith went to sleep when she turned her mind off.  Meredith said that actually, Merebith is given a tranquilizer to make her faint.  For Dogot, she presses his reset button because he'll be out of it for awhile.  I asked Meredith who was the one to give Merebith the tranquilizer shot.  She she that it was one of the "hands" with the Mickey Mouse gloves on it.  Meredith explained that basically she controls these mechanical hands when she needs to do something to Merebith or Dogot.  Ah, now I remember.  She talked about a hand coming out to tickle Merebith to give her the feeling of guilt.  This is one of the many mechanical hands that she uses in her mind.

Back to tranquilizing Merebith...  Meredith said that she laughs at Merebith when she is sleeping after being shot with the tranquilizer because she mumbles things like, "Dogot...Dogot, don't touch...the computer," and "What...should..I wear?"

Dogot, on the other hand, mumbles other words while he is sleeping: "Bark...bark...bark."  I don't mean bark like "ruff, ruff," I mean he actually says the word, "bark," because as you know, he is a robot after all.

Brilliant Make-Believers

A recent commenter shared this story about purposefully creating a mental computer and backup filing system. Unfortunately, the commenter experienced failures with these efforts--the computer blue-screened during an exam and the little guy running the computer tripped on the cord and broke his leg during another exam, rendering him unable to access the back-up files.

I must admit that the cynical side of me thought that maybe this was a spoof of my blog (however, now I do believe the commenter is sincere). Both my husband and I had that initial cynical reaction because hearing things like this sounds totally made up. I see the same reaction on the faces of my friends when I tell them Meredith's stories. There's kind of a "Oh...Hmmm..." followed by an awkward silence. It just occurred to me, being slightly defensive thinking about those reactions, is that, News Flash--it IS made up! These mental scenes are the works of people with a gifted ability to think visually. People with amazing imaginations.

When I shared this commenter's story with my daughter, Meredith, she didn't skip a beat in responding. (She obviously hasn't had enough experience to build that cynical side!) She thought it was funny, but said that has happened to her as well. Apparently, Dogot frequently trips over computer cords. And like the commenter's little guy, Dogot once tripped and broke his wheel. Fortunately, when Dogot's parts arrive as he grows bigger, they come with spares so Merebith was able to repair his wheel.

The news to me of all of this was that Meredith even had computer files--I thought they were all paper files. She said that she got them in 2008. I wonder if that is when she first started using the computer...? And again like the commenter, she still keeps paper files for backup. Except, she said, that sometimes Dogot uses the papers to do his business. "Dogot has a business?" I asked with great curiosity. "No, not that kind of business. You know...his business...he is a dog, remember?" "Oh," I finally said. "Except that his 'business' is oil instead of pee and...you know," she said. "When that happens, the information on the page is all blacked out and you can't see anything. Good thing is, though, Merebith has a machine called a "detector" and it can detect the words through the oil and then make, like, five new copies of the paper."

I have a feeling that this blog will continue as long as I have the energy to record her stories or at least for the next few years before the teenager in her tells me to bug off, because there seems to be no end to her imagination and the scenes, machines, and characters that occupy her mind. For now, I'll just enjoy the brilliance of it all.