A Second Thought.

Have you ever wondered what thought is? How does it originate? Why does it even originate? Why do different people have different thought processes to the same problem? If not, give it a second thought :p

Puns and jokes aside, a thought is something that makes us human. It helps us make sense of whatever we perceive around us. It helps us understand our feelings, and rightfully act upon them (or not act upon them, maybe), based on what we think about them. But at a deeper and more fundamental level, a thought is much more than that. It’s you speaking to yourself in your mind, and to speak, you require language. So, this brings me to the point of thought being nothing but a collection of words in a specific language, which remains stuck inside your head, unless you act upon it in a certain way.

Does that mean, that without the knowledge of language, you will have no thoughts crossing your mind? Again, a food for thought :p If you have no thoughts in your mind, you will be operating at a very basic level of consciousness, similar to other animals, birds, and mammals. Your actions will be based on pure instinct and experience, with no logic or reason involved whatsoever. Which brings me next, to the point that language is a very powerful tool. It can shape your reality, it can alter your consciousness state. It has the power to change the world, to bend reality (yes, truly it does!). The problem is, we get stuck in the words, and forget the meaning that it is trying to convey. If you can leverage the power of effective linguistics, then voila my friend! You can practically take up any challenge that is thrust upon you, without the fear of failure.

In the movie Arrival (2016), aliens invade the Earth in the most typical of ways and place unforgiving demands on the humans if they want them to leave the planet. Sounds quite cliched, right? It does, but there’s a caveat; these aliens are not like any others shown in pop culture and movies. These seem real, authentic and harmless. They communicate differently than humans because they are much more evolved than humans. The concept of time is immaterial and invalid to them. They view everything together. The Past, the Present, and the Future, all coexist for them. Consequently, their mode of communication is also, quite unique. The language that they use to communicate, is again quite complex for an average human to comprehend. So how does a team of rescuers manage to communicate with them, let alone drive them away from their beloved motherland? By not just giving it a second thought, but giving multiple thoughts and acting upon them.

The protagonist in the movie, Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist played by Amy Adams, tries hard to comprehend the language of the aliens, and succeeds in doing so, which alters her understanding of time as well. She is able to communicate with the aliens using their sign language, but because the language is such that it conveys everything at once, it gives her a completely different perspective on the dimension of time. All this just because she was able to think in a certain way, which is far beyond the understanding of an average human being. She was able to envision the entire world in a single flash of thought, which helped her make the right decisions thereon. She did not have to draw conclusions, she could see them already drawn out for her. She was able to act out of choice, not necessity, and courage, not fear.

The point here is, that to solve complex problems, we need to understand the power of unbiased observation. We need to stop drawing conclusions too quickly, and give it ‘a second thought’. Open up newer, more interesting perspectives on the situation at hand, and you’ll discover some amazingly beautiful ways to solve the problem. Sometimes, the problem might not even be real, it might be created fictitiously by your own mind! So beware of your thoughts, they can make you or break you!

Bonne journée!