The Abbott Family Blog

Words smell? Well not exactly. But, there is a clear similarity between odors and words. Simply put, words are to humans as odors are to dogs. And the same applies to beliefs. In the biological sense of things belief take place in our most developed organ - the brain. The olfactory sense of reality in dogs is the same, functionally speaking. Beliefs, rites, and rituals in our species serves as ‘odors’ in the larger social sense just as actual odors do in many (most or all?) social animals, e.g., rats, dogs, ants, etc. Need I say more? I think not. I’d just ’stink’ up the place.

The younger minds tend to perceive difference more readily. Like looking out at life’s experiences through separate windows. I expect this is just a symptom of neurological processes. An older mind’s ability to perceive similarities rests in that biology as well. As we age the mind’s billions of synapses continue to connect in more numerous and subtler ways. Wisdom is, after all, the ability to see ‘outside the box’ of instinctive reactions and impulses. Eventually, every older mind should see the thread running through the way.