We will be offering a Waka FREE Poetry in the Park guided hike at 6-Mile Coulee Nature Reserve, Lethbridge, on April 21, 2024. There’s always a lot of inspiration for poetry to be found at 6-Mile Coulee. The flowers will have started blooming and the birds will be singing to a handsome buck who lives there. You should come join us!
The Yellow Bells (the lilies seen in the above video) will still be blooming April 21, 2024. We will also find Prairie Crocus; Long-fruited Prairie Parsley; Moss Phlox; and Old-man’s Whiskers (also known as Three-flowered Avens).
Daily Bread
T.V. life is fake
and yet we like to watch it.
It’s like how the sick
can’t handle food that’s healthy.
Lifeless men can’t handle life.
That poem was a Waka I wrote on March 9, 2024 (after having spent many sick days watching a stupid teen series called Teen Wolf). I’m back to eating broccoli and asparagus (thank goodness).
I’ve been watching 30 Rock lately. I borrowed the complete series from my local public library (where I get all of the T.V. that I watch). I was surprised to see that I hadn’t watched anything past season 3 while it was on the tube. I guess I was out living instead.
There’s one point when Jack is mentoring Liz and tells her about the Shower Principle, which he presents as a real scientific phenomenon. He explained it as follows: it is moments of inspiration that occur when the brain is distracted from the problem at hand. When the cerebral cortex is distracted by showering (or something else), then the anterior superior temporal gyrus is activated. Since, Jack explains, this is the sight of sudden cognitive inspiration, your brain solves the problem for you.
I googled the Shower Principle. The first answers to my query were 30 Rock things. There were a few results to my search that were written by people who seemed to actually believe that this is an actual scientific phenomenon. I did a search on the Shower Principle through google scholar. There were no results that listed the Shower Principle. This principle seems to have originated on 30 Rock.
The T.V is on a lot when I’m home. It keeps me company while I clean, cook, write poetry, and paint watercolour paintings. I’ve heard a lot of pseudo-science on sitcoms, and then heard the sentiments repeated by the public at large. I’ve come to expect that, if I hear somebody say something interesting, it likely originated on a sitcom.
I started doing a google scholar search on the brain and inspiration. I’ll attach the results that I found interesting at the end of this post, in case you’re interested. However, I would recommend you go to your public library and borrow The Great Courses that pertain to the human brain instead. I’ve watched them and they were all excellent.
You could watch Great Courses when the weather seems too wintery to pull you outside for a hike this spring. If your local public library doesn’t have these Great Courses on their shelves, you can order them in from any library in Alberta (provided you hold an Alberta library card – including student cards of a post-secondary institution).
I like to look up titles on The Great Courses website and then look them up through the public library system. I found that keeping a record of what I had already watched essential. There are a lot of DVD courses on similar subjects. It can be tough to recall which ones one has already seen in short order. I have provided a link to The Great Courses website at the end of this post.
The superior temporal gyrus is a real part of the brain. It’s involved in processing language. I doubt it has anything to do with sudden inspiration. The anterior temporal gyrus (anterior temporal lobe) is important for sematic memory – our knowledge of facts, words, etc. So, this could help one recall some information that they had learned but had trouble accessing.
According to Noesis (see link at the end of this post), inspired brains have increased alpha wave activity. Spending time in daily meditation or a joyful, mindful experience will lower stress and increase insight and creativity. So, Jack’s office putting exercise might have served that function for him. Poetry in the Park certainly promotes insight and creativity.
If you want sudden inspiration, you’re certain to find it on a Poetry in the Park hike with us whereas you’re unlikely to find it while vegetating in front of a T.V. show like 30 Rock. I’m not saying that programs like 30 Rock don’t serve a function. I watch them. I didn’t watch any T.V for months during 2020, when James was teaching me how to write poetry, however.
As I mentioned, I get my T.V. from the library. I wasn’t bringing anything home from the public library during the pandemic in 2020. I was out hiking and them came home to write, eat, and sleep. It was wonderful. I often wonder why I got back into the habit of watching T.V. at all.
I use T.V as a substitute for company. The company it provides me with is as fictional as the programs themselves. Having T.V.in my life (with the exception of nonfictional resources like The Great Courses) really isn’t healthy. I know that, but winters are long in Canada. In summer, I can find healthy entertainment out in nature.
James and I will be hosting a Poetry in the Park hike on April 21, 2024 between 10 AM and noon in Six-Mile Coulee Nature Reserve in Lethbridge. This nature reserve contains more biodiversity than any other park in Lethbridge. See the link below (to another nature-lover’s website to get a taste of what beauty you will encounter while hiking in Six-Mile Coulee).
Although there are signs indicating that 6-mile coulee is a nature reserve (and that bicycles and dogs aren’t allowed there), speeding mountain bikes are a hazard there. I would recommend that you wear bright colours while hiking there. A mountain biker probably wouldn’t kill you if they hit you, but they might take away your hiking season (perhaps for good).
I recently saw an accident involving a black truck and a pedestrian on 13 Street, North, Lethbridge. The emergency response team would have surely reached the pedestrian promptly at that location. It would take longer for them to reach a hiker with a broken back on a trail in 6-mile coulee nature reserve.
Other Sources
https://www.inaturalist.org/places/179861
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/category/science?CFM=category_slider
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17470919.2013.808259
https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7793.1999.00383.x
The last one really didn’t have anything to do with the sentiments from 30 Rock, but it was interesting.
mountainbrideblog 