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Are we all storytellers even if we don't write? |
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We create a narrative for our lives. Some stories are good, others not so. Self-talk or inner speech is an inner narrative which gives a voice to our thoughts while we are awake. Dramatists use a monologue or soliloquy to tell the audience what a character is thinking. They sometimes use it to share information with the audience. But what of the stories we tell ourselves? Why do we do it and can they affect us? For most of us, the answer is yes, and our story can impact everything we do. Tell ourselves a bad story and our life can be hell. Introspection is the examination of our own conscious thoughts. It also involves a look at our soul in a spiritual context. For thousands of years, people talked about the inner voice. Plato once questioned, “...why should we not calmly and patiently review our own thoughts”. Self-reflection is an image we have of ourselves and is hard to change. It comes from things learned about who we are. Research has shown human brains can only experience one thought at a time as a fast-flowing stream. Buddhist scriptures describe it as the 'Mind Stream'. Practising mindfulness is being aware of the moment-to-moment events in our lives and how we react. Buddhist teachings say the mental and material events created by the senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, touch, and thoughts are related to the past, present, and future. In literature, the technique of narrating the flow of thoughts and feelings in the minds of characters is called stream of consciousness. Stream of consciousness is a literary device which gives the writer the ability to tell an audience or reader what a character is thinking. It can be a loose selection of thoughts in connection with how the person feels or reacts to something. Authors, however, did not invent stream of consciousness but the term was coined by eminent psychologist William James. Susan Blackmore, visiting professor, University of Plymouth describes it this way, “When I say that consciousness is an illusion I do not mean that consciousness does not exist. I mean that consciousness is not what it appears to be. If it seems to be a continuous stream of rich and detailed experiences, happening one after the other to a conscious person, this is the illusion.” We know a negative self-talking story is associated with psychological disorders such as low moods affecting how we behave, and our sense of well-being. It can also lead to a sense of dread and turmoil resulting in loss of sleep. In the next blog, I look at ways to tell ourselves a better story. |
| Here in Australia, when large tracts of the country started to burn, politicians acted quickly by booking Christmas holidays before queues got big at the airports. One politician looked to the skies and declared the disaster was from a higher authority, and there is nothing we can do about it. The current fires could be interpreted as God’s message much the same way he impressed Moses with a burning bush. The Almighty, “Like, um, you better do something. And don’t even think to question the Lord.” Mark Eggleton reporting in the Financial Review quotes the chief executive officer of the Clean Energy Council Kane Thornton as saying, “The technology’s proven, and we are seeing this around the world, so very clearly we can transition (from fossil fuel) much faster now than people had anticipated.” This fire crisis in a country with no national energy policy makes Australians look indecisive, not to mention a mob of half-baked cow-pat kickers. As the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison rummages through the eggplant and lentils in the parliament house kitchen, hoping to find a pork sausage to beef-up his flexitarian diet, he might think of renewable technology… It changes as quickly as voters change their minds. |
| By the 1990s, computer models predicted an increase in global temperature of around 2C. Everyone thought, be serious! Two degrees ain’t so bad, it’s nothing! What the computer models didn’t tell scientists because programmer Maybell Rutledge from Jackson Hole Wyoming forgot to put a comma between a mindboggling big set of numbers was—a warmer climate means hotter summers, less rain, and countrysides bursting in firestorms. The world witnessed how devastating wildfires can be for humans and animals. The computers also forgot to mention that farm animals will die, and menus will feature big slabs of tofu topped pizzas. If you ever thought a vegetarian lifestyle is not for you, think again. |
| Meat Lover’s pizzas will disappear from menus as quickly as the Tasmanian Tiger vanished from a concrete zoo in 1936. A child of the future may ask the fated question at a dinner table, “What was a meat lover?” To which the vegetarian parents will scramble to Google or ask Siri to find a photo of a grease-stained menu. Thomas Edison, who invented electricity, was one of the first to raise concern that generating electricity to power the light bulb could, to say the least, be a bit tricky. Perhaps he guessed back in 1930 that his invention would see hundreds of household devices needing electrical power from coal-fired power stations. These power stations pump CO2 into the biosphere, which in turn heats the atmosphere. Billions of households sweating it out cool down by turning on the air conditioner. More and more coal is burned to power the air-cons, but the Earth is heating up. The flustered masses drop the thermostat to notch up the cold…and you get the picture. |
| Gundi Rhoades is a veterinarian caring for livestock in northern NSW for the last 22 years. In an article published in the Brisbane Times, she writes of the devastation she sees daily caused by a changing climate. “Cattle that sold for thousands (of dollars) are now in sale yards a $70 per head,” she said. Magnificent bloodline stock going for a song? It made me think what a fantastic marketing opportunity for a fast-food franchise: Not just a beef patty, but a pedigree burger. The vet’s point is that bulls, or more specifically their unmentionables, are overheating in 40C/100F temperatures in what usually has been a temperate zone. A bull with hot private parts can’t do what a bull has to do, which means cattle herds are going the way of the dinosaur. Rhoades went on to say about the prolonged hot and dry conditions in that part of Australia, “Piglets and calves are aborting.” The vet’s point is that the food chain, especially the animal protein part, is deserting us and meat could become extinct from our dinner plates. The finger of blame cannot be levelled solely at the rise of Indian vegetarian restaurants. A thing more sinister is at hand. |
| A thick slab of beef browning in a skillet of oil could make way for braised quinoa or a tempeh confit. But don’t expect meat lovers to chain themselves to bridge pylons in protest. The conversion to a country of beany-boilers will arrive slowly, just as a warming climate crept unawares. Gone will be the days when shoppers shook hands with beef, but join the queues of grass-holes and tree-huggers in the Republic of Vegantopia—formerly known as Australia. ...to be continued. |
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