I Ain't Got No Fuckin' Chicken

What is a thought? What makes up the substance of a thought? Where do thoughts come from?

This is some pretty complicated cogitation and it makes my head hurt, because The Fool is not a heavy thinker,so please be patient with me on this journey. This subject in one form or another usually comes up when someone is interviewing a writer or some other wordsmith. The question usually goes: "Where do you get your ideas from?" The one being interviewed usually returns a blank stare and mutters something about research and ideas and such, which is all very well and good...as far as it goes.

It's really not a difficult question to answer. A writer sees something and does a "what if" and a story begins to form (the operative word here is form). The rest is research to flesh out the rest of the story which develops during the process of research. Sounds overly simplistic doesn't it? Well it is. It's much more complicated, but still doesn't address the question: What is a thought?

Being one not to be shy about offering his opinion, I submit, the Fools Definition of a Thought.

One more thing though. I was reading awhile back the answer to this very question from a religious point of view. But before I get going, the scientific community has it's own take on the subject. Here's a simple breakdown: "All these little neurons and chemicals and stuff in our heads get together in the brain to do the Hokey Pokey. They dance around and swirl and blink on and off until they get tired. Then they go over and sit down and have drinks, get drunk and have sex. The results of all of this electronic cohabitation is a thought. Since many neurons are engaged in this orgy of electronic lust at any one time, many thoughts are born". At least that's what I got out of it. The fewer electrons you have in your brain doing the nasty, the fewer the thoughts you'll have romping around in your head.

I tend to lean towards a more "cleaner" version that was supplied by a member of the religious sector. Yeah, I know. Religion is bad. But it doesn't mean that there aren't any caring thinking and loving people involved in religion. That old saying," don't hate the player, hate the game" also applies to religion.

Okay? Here we go. A thought is a metaphysical function that interacts with the physical world. See? Simple and clean. And if you think about it for a minute, a thought has no physical characteristics. You can't see, touch, taste or smell a thought. Yet it exists. Cogito ergo sum: "I think, therefore I am" is a philosophical statement courtesy of Descartes. And if you come at this from a different angle, you get: we think, therefore we are, whatever we think, we are, I think and I am, my thinking makes me, me and I ain't got no fuckin' chicken!

Of course we are the sum total of our experiences, but our thought process is how we express those experiences. We basically are the product of our thinking. We are the "am". Since our thoughts are a metaphysical function, it gives rise to the possibly of a relationship to the divine. There. I said it. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. You haven't run away yet, have you, because these are just my own personal opinions and ruminations, crazy though you think I might be.

Spirituality used to be a big thing with black people. At one time we were pretty close to figuring this stuff out. Too bad we fell down the shit hole of life and never found a way out. It's too bad that we can't wrap our heads around the concept that we think, therefore we are and that that gives us a connection to the divine which binds all life here on old planet earth where, incidently you can get some pretty good chicken, even at two in the AM.

These are just my crazy musings that I use to justify my relationship to something greater than I am. As I said previously, religion in and of itself is not a bad thing. If it floats your boat and allows you to do the Macarena with the Universe, then by all means, sit down with the divine, have a few pieces of extra crispy, a glass of beer (although I've heard wine is the beverage of choice), some smashed potatoes and rolls and knock yourself out.

I tend to refer to khalil Gibran a lot. Here's one on Good and Evil. Back to the Hill I go.

Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.

Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.

Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.

For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.

And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.

Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.

For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.

Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, "Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance."

For to the fruit giving is a need, as re- ceiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech, Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.

And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.

Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.

Even those who limp go not backward.

But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good, You are only loitering and sluggard.

Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.

But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carr- ying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.

And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.

But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, "Wherefore are you slow and halting?"

For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor the house- less, "What has befallen your house?"