I saw black tulips with astonishingly delicate and feathery petals.
I saw an old man waiting on a bench for his wife to finish chatting with someone.
I saw a fat bride with sunburned shoulders and neck.
I saw little boys in tuxedos and I heard toads trilling, treefrogs croaking and western chorus frogs clicking.
I saw a huge garter snake. Nearly stepped on it, in fact.
This all made me think: what makes you notice something? What is it that makes something cross the filter from sensation and into perception? Having been perceived, what brings it into cognition? Individuals are bombarded by stimuli of varying quality, duration and intensity all day long, but only some of them break through. And only some become incorporated and remembered – become, in a word, part of one’s mind.
That black tulip, for instance, was so unusual I couldn’t help but notice it. But on another day in a less receptive mood I might have passed it by.
The old man looked patient and content, like he was the quiet one in the relationship and was used to waiting.
The robust bride I passed by was so pink on her sun-exposed parts I couldn’t help but notice, and having noticed, I thought: She is going to be so red and sore in the morning her new husband won’t even be able to touch her. Hopefully they will get their fill with the fucking that night.
And the frogs and toads. I used to think those noises were from bugs. Only after listening to Stan Tekiela’s “Reptiles and Amphibians of Minnesota” did I learn they came from distinct amphibians. This made me more attuned to them and allowed them to “break through” the barrier.
And that snake. I only noticed it when it fled. A biologist once proved that a snake with speckled coloration is more likely to freeze when approached, while one with stripes, like this one, will flee and cause its pursuer to misjudge its speed and miss it when it strikes.
Yet as much as I love noticing things like these, I am grateful that I am not constantly aware of the hum of traffic outside, for instance, or of the clothes over my skin. And that I can usually control what I think about instead of being pushed and pulled by intrusive thoughts. And that I can think without the input of any sensation at all.
pseudoisaac 