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Meditation 1282
Dreaming of - - big beautiful brains

by: Gordon Barthel

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1.

I dream of a world that believes every human past, present and future has a big beautiful brain, a world that recognizes every human brain has the ability to learn everything it needs to know to survive and to flourish, a world that acknowledges every mortal encephalon possesses knowledge, perhaps not the most prestigious knowledge, perhaps not the most profound knowledge, but knowledge nonetheless, a world that understands every individual cerebrum possesses the ability to make person choices, the innate ability to decide what it is willing to believe and what it is not willing to believe, for such a world truly understands something about homo sapiens,

I dream of a civilization that truly believes every human past, present and future has a big beautiful brain endowed with highly evolved faculties such as language, perception, apprehension, reason and imagination to name a few, a civilization that believes every human male and female, young and old, has a large, sophisticated encephalon endowed with the ability to learn, the capacity to store information regarding life, reality, the universe and humankind, and the genetically guaranteed capacity to decide what one is willing to believe and what one is not willing to believe, for such a civilization honestly knows something about homo sapiens,

2.

I dream of a culture that treasures learning for we come into this world with no knowledge, no skills, no experience but we have the instinctive desire to learn, we have the urge to learn how to converse and share knowledge, we have the impulse to learn how to socialize and master the art of cooperation, we have the impetus to master our innate skills and develop learned skills,
I dream of a culture that treasures learning for if we are willing to learn, we can cease being the victims of our circumstances, we can turn failures into successes, we can turn tragedy into personal triumph, we can rise from the rubble and ruins of natural disasters and rebuild our lives better than they were, we can pick up the pieces of our lives following manmade catastrophes and build a better world, a safer world for all humankind, and we can even learn to be better stewards of this beautiful blue sphere,

I dream of a culture that treasures learning for if we are willing to learn about life, reality and the universe, we can gain greater mastery of our world and our lives, we can cure terminal diseases, we can eradicate poverty and starvation, we can guarantee every child has adequate nourishment and a decent education, and we can ensure every adult is an esteemed member of the community,

3

I dream of a society that acknowledges every mortal encephalon contains knowledge, perhaps not the most earth-shattering knowledge, but knowledge nonetheless, a society that recognizes we come into this world with no knowledge, no comprehension of the most basic matters, yet we leave this world after several decades with a wealth of knowledge, knowledge of politics, religion, business, society, language, humanity, nature, plants, animals and the incomprehensibly vast cosmos,

I dream of a society that acknowledges every mortal encephalon contains knowledge, knowledge of family and friends, neighbours and strangers, knowledge of science, health, education, entertainment and culture, perhaps not the most sophisticated cognition, perhaps not the most glorious cognition, but cognition nonetheless,

I dream of a society that acknowledges every mortal cranium is crammed with knowledge, knowledge of whose expecting and whose dying, knowledge of pious priests and righteous teetotallers, knowledge of pompous politicians and tyrannical tycoons, perhaps factual, perhaps factitious, but knowledge nonetheless, knowledge we use to deliberate what's right and what's wrong, knowledge we use to deliberate who's virtuous and who's not,

I dream of a society that celebrates the wealth of knowledge inside our libraries, knowledge of the stars, planets and galaxies, knowledge of protons, electrons, atoms and molecules, knowledge of microbes, algae, fungi, mosses and lichen, knowledge of flowers, plants, grasses and trees, knowledge of insects, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, everything from aardvarks to zygotes,

I dream of a society that celebrates the wealth of knowledge inside our brains, a society that argues if we could collect all the information inside every cranium past, present and future, we could glimpse the vast universe of discourse, a society that contends if theologians truly wish to glimpse omniscience, they should descend from their ethereal citadels and catalogue the knowledge of peasants and patricians, pedestrians and pundits,

4

I dream of a civilization that acknowledges every mortal encephalon can make choices from mundane decisions to monumental decisions, a civilization that recognizes we can make snap choices and we can take forever to decide, we can make emotional choices and rational choices, we can make logical decisions and intuitive decisions, we can make private choices and public choices, individual decisions and collective decisions, and we can even refuse to decide,

I dream of a civilization that acknowledges we have the cognitive capacity to decide what is best for ourselves, a civilization that believes given good, accurate information, we can decide what is best for ourselves, and if we make a bad choice, we can always change our mind, turning a bad choice into a good choice and becoming a little wiser in the process,
I dream of a civilization that teaches people the art of making decisions, not a civilization that decrees people think this or that, but a civilization that teaches the art of making good choices, a civilization that teaches us to clarify our objective, examine our options, consult reputable sources and consider our experience, our needs and our ambitions, and then, decide what is best for ourselves,

I dream of a civilization that teaches people the art of rectifying poor choices, not a civilization that rails against poor choices and definitely not a civilization that penalizes people for making bad choices, but a civilization that recognizes everybody makes their fair share of poor choices, a civilization that recognizes everybody needs to learn the art of correcting poor choices, a civilization that recognizes mistakes are a golden opportunity to learn, a golden opportunity to become a little wiser,

5

I dream of a world that understands we begin life with no knowledge and no beliefs but our brains possess the insatiable desire to learn, to devour information about our world, information that becomes the basis of our personal database of knowledge, knowledge that becomes the basis of our beliefs and opinions, a world that understands we do not come into this existence without any beliefs or opinions, that we must learn about the prevailing beliefs and opinions, learn about the rationale and reasoning for those convictions and decide whether we wish to accept them or we wish to examine other perspectives,

I dream of a world that recognizes the mortal encephalon builds its beliefs from its knowledge of life, reality and the universe, a world that acknowledges if our knowledge changes or evolves, our convictions may also change, if the information validating our convictions changes, then our beliefs may also change, perhaps imperceptibly, perhaps profoundly,

I dream of a world that proclaims every human from the richest to the poorest, the most powerful to the most vulnerable, the most literate to the most ignorant has the liberty to decide what they will believe and what they will not believe,

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