"Let's Get Real" by Gerald Angelo Cirrincione Every thought has a job to do. And if it isn't doing its work, it's got to be corrected until it does —or another thought has to be found to take its place. Thoughts need to be strong and sturdy. They must carry their own weight and ours, like planks on which we will walk. They must take us from wherever we are to wherever we want to go. Thoughts are not idle or purposeless. They are not useless speculations. They are not luxuries. They are not escapist. Thoughts are our servants. And they have a down-to-earth job to do. They need to help us make sense of ourselves, our work, our environment, and other people, so we can be happy and healthy. Your thoughts live in your brain, using your brain cells and neural energy, as well as your time and attention. You give them mental room and board. They must earn their keep. A weak, pusillanimous, lackluster, aimless, or vague thought just takes up mental room. Each one of your thoughts should demonstrate that it can do something for you. Just because a thought happens to be inside your head doesn't mean that it is "your" thought. You may not remember where or how or why you acquired it. You may have accepted it right away when you first heard or read it a long time ago. You may have never considered its consequences or its ramifications. You may never have examined it. Some of these ideas are just not worth having. They may be harmful or counter-productive, or less beneficial and productive than you would like. Completely eliminating such useless concepts can be the best thing you can do. By carefully pruning the tree of your thoughts, you stimulate fresh growth. Focus on your own. Other people's thoughts aren't your concern. You are responsible for only your thoughts. Moreover, only you have that responsibility. And it is an awesome one. What you think affects absolutely every aspect of your life and work, so it is imperative to keep vigilant watch over your thoughts. Be a stern taskmaster, ruthless almost. Every thought needs a performance evaluation. How is the concept benefiting you? Is the idea useful? What evidence do you have that the thought is working for you? Is it accomplishing a constructive and worthwhile function? Is the thought earning its place in your mind? If not, throw it out of your brain right now. Life is too short to think nonsense. Sweep it out. Realism and imagination are not really opposites; they are complementary. Each one corrects and balances the other. We develop imagination by developing realism. Imagination without realism is madness. Realism without imagination is suffocation. With one's feet on the ground, one can let one's imagination rip and roar. When we can differentiate between what is imaginary and what is real, we can benefit from both. Some people have unrealistic notions about what thinking can do. Let's be clear about the limits to thought. There are three main ones. They are absolutely basic and fundamental. It is important to review them from time to time. The first limit suggests how to get results with people. The second limit suggests how to get results with things. And the third suggests how to learn about the world. Here the first one: 1. One person's thoughts do not directly affect another person's thoughts. Sorry, but mind- reading, telepathy, and thought transference are illusions. My thoughts can never directly affect your thoughts, and your thoughts can never directly affect my thoughts. Does this mean that people are condemned to live out their lives isolated and alone? And to be eternally misunderstood? Not at all! I cannot send my thoughts directly into your mind, so I write this column. You cannot look into my mind and see my thoughts, so you read my column. Not such a bad arrangement, is it? We simply need to do the work of using the medium of the physical universe to exchange ideas with each other. We need to communicate. All language is body language. Humans have evolved a rich variety of ways to communicate with each other using the voice, the hands, and the whole body. People who use speech, writing, and gesture clearly and precisely can expect what they are thinking to be understood. This takes skill and effort and is challenging. Spoken communication involves sound waves passing through a vibrating medium. Written communication uses pens, pencils, and keyboards. Even computer software and networks are physical, not virtual. Mind-to-mind communication happens via matter only. Unless we communicate, guesswork and inference are necessary. And that involves looking for physical clues. This leads to mistakes. Here is the second limit to thinking: 2. A person's thoughts do not directly move external physical objects. This, alas, means that wishing doesn't make it so. And there is no such thing as magic or psychokinesis. We do not directly change things with our minds. We do not achieve instantaneous results in the physical world just from our intentions. The only material thing that our thoughts can directly affect is our own individual physical body. Our bodies are our valuable connection to the physical universe. Thinking that ignores this connection spins its wheels. It becomes hopelessly abstract and confusing. It remains impotent. We use our bodily actions— planned, organized, and managed by our thinking—to grasp and shape our physical environment. Thinking directs our physical undertakings. In this way, thinking adapts our physical surroundings to our wants and needs. Here is the third limit to thinking: 3. External objects do not directly produce thoughts in a person's mind. We must pay attention to our senses. There is no ESP. We must look, listen, touch, taste, and smell objects to get to know them. This is an enjoyable task. Our senses do it pleasurably and naturally. The physical world doesn't tell us about itself all at once. And we don't learn entirely about a thing just by glancing at it. We use our senses again and again. Human learning about the world is an incremental, step-by-step process. We take in perceptions. When considered, they become thoughts to be considered further. These may then lead to additional thoughts. We try out the thoughts in the real world. The physical world makes our thoughts visible and audible. On the basis of this we modify them. In this way discoveries are made. Let's get physical. The three limits to thought we have just discussed emphasize that thinking occurs within a human body in the physical world. Our bodies suit us for thinking. Our thinking suits our bodies for action. We are thinking bodies. Thinking is music played on the instrument of the body. The entire nervous system is involved, hence the entire body. The eyes and the hands work together perfectly for examining, studying. Eyes focus on what dexterous hands can hold. The eyes close, enabling us to consider, to visualize, to imagine. The ears are always open and hear in any direction. They warn us of approaching dangers and alert us to arriving visitors when we are absorbed. Thinking is in no way anti-physical. It is not immaterial. We are not disembodied minds. Our minds have a strongly interactive relationship with the physical. Thinking is sensual. It is how we play with the physical world, hold it, accommodate it to our desires and yearnings. Sensitively. Thinking is how we appreciate our physical nature. Thought is a flowering of the material universe. It brings people closer to, not farther from, their bodies. It is the subtlest dance. Gerald Angelo Cirrincione's unique lectures and writings combine optimism with irreverence, and provoke people to examine the role that thinking plays in their life.