Rhizoboy

Rambling is something I do well. It starts at the frontal lobe and quickly makes its way towards the mouth. The path it follows has little to no obstruction resulting in a swift expression of thought.
Yesterday I sat in a crammed lecture hall, people spilling over the floor and seats to listen to a presentation by Prof. Eric Kandel, a Nobel Laureate in medicine. What followed was a presentation by the sharpest 84 year old mind I believe I have (and will) ever experienced. Explaining with his whimsical charm the path that long
term memory follows to become engrained in our mind. He explained how an experience so intense, such as love or heartbreak, activates genetic transcription to create a memory. Our memories, your first heartbreak, your first kiss, the feeling of holding your first born child, are the result of something so magnificent (or terrible) it affects our DNA at a molecular level.
When we explore our memories, we begin to discover patterns. The first few things that come to mind are usually random, but focus and you start to see images, experience past feelings and hear songs and sounds. Eventually we start to see how our physical brain prioritises memory and perhaps we can start to understand ourselves more intimately.
For me, I remember seeing things in nature from such a young age, the first time a magpie swooped me, a centipede 20cm long, the dazzling stars seen far from city lights, the fun we had as kids running through the bush, water, swimming, the beach my mind begins to overflow! Then as I move forward I see school, a solemn time filled with confusion, my first kiss (haha to a girl) and the first man I fell in love with. Memories so vivid that they tell a story of how my brain functions as an organ and how my soul finds a home in those many synapses.