Boundaries

I had an assignment for a class today, and, in the process of actually being surprised I found the homework interesting, came across some fascinating information. It was a TED talk by Neuroscientist Neil Burgess about How your brain tells you where you are. Now, I found this quite interesting because he said that the way we figure out where we are... Is with boundaries. Rather than go into detail about it I will sum it up. The human brain has roughly a hundred billion neurons and these communicate through electric impulses. Now they did studies that showed a specific set of neurons in a rats brain fired whenever the rat was in a certain part of a room. A different set fired in a different area and so forth. If one were to enlarge the room, the area that the neurons fired in would stretch out according to the increased room. This is how we find our cars in a parking lot, by mapping the firing neurons in our brains when we park, we can return to the location by finding the correct neuron pattern. These neurons map the space around us. These neurons also assist us when we use imagination and even when we remember a previous occasion, such as a wedding.

This sparked a thought in my mind that made me recall one of my college teachers comments. Children playing at schools want barriers. They want that wall up between them and the street. Certain people noted how at recess the children would play to the fence. They would go all the way out and back in their play. One bright intelligent person with possibly a very advanced degree decided that we should do away with the fences. Perhaps the children feel caged or imprisoned and we should get rid of those fences! Well, this happened and the children would no longer play as far. They would stay closer to the school. The fences went back up eventually and the kids would play out to the fence again. While those students would go all the way up to the fence they still deep down knew the value of them. They wouldn't feel safe until the fence was back up.

In our life we have boundaries. Spiritual. Physical. Mental. These are what tell us where we are. We can push those boundaries to the limit. Expanding or contracting according to whim or reason. They are there for a reason. I could go on and explain and explain but I will leave it with this.

Without boundaries.


We will be lost.