The most interesting part of my very boring math essay.

To think about what you, personally, think about is, while confusing, a most worthwhile endeavor. However, if you continue on this line of thought, you might end up thinking about thinking about thought, and then thinking about thinking about thinking about thought, and thinking about thinking about thinking about thinking about thought, and so on and so on until you are very much lost. I spent last Saturday just thinking, not about thought, or about anything in particular, really, but just... thinking. From this “experiment,” I have come to the conclusion that I am insane. We all are really; just look back and try to comprehend the way your mind works. Sitting there on a weekend, trying very hard to focus on a certain math project, for example, one might begin to stray towards slightly more appealing topics, like what you could be doing at the same time: say, going to a concert by a musician you really love, who happens to be performing just one state over. From the concert, you picture the last show the musician was in. From that, your mind strays to a different show and then, a character from this show. Then you recall the actor who portrays him; and then a different movie that actor was in, until, finally, you look up and realize you’re thinking about Harry Potter, and no one around you has any clue why you just started talking about Emma Watson’s new haircut.

I find that, typically, when I allow my brain to wander, I usually end up in a fantasy world or alternate reality as described by the most recent book I have read, movie I have watched, or TV show I have seen. This is, more than any other reason, why I do not watch scary movies- until I see something else that sticks more, that’s where I am. When reading Harry Potter, I attend Hogwarts. The Lord of the Rings, I live in Lothlorion, or maybe Gondor, or perhaps I’m a prisoner of Sauron’s. While watching Doctor Who, I become his companion, and travel through time and space. Thusly, always seem to have my head in the clouds, but more often, I’m really deep underground, hiding from the police as an Unwind, or winding my way through the tunnels of Moria. I believe this properly explains my dislike for realistic fiction- why be stuck in a desk at school in real life and in daydreams, when I could be exploring the Department of Mysteries?

Sometimes, however, my brain doesn’t cause me to be in an entirely different world, instead leaving me someplace entirely random, with hardly any idea how I got there. I often go off on seemingly unrelated tangents, but usually, there really is a set of thoughts that connects the original idea to the later one. For example, this afternoon, I found myself in a coffee shop with paintings lining the walls. Many of the paintings had quotes incorporated into them, and I occupied myself by reading them. At one point, I came across the one, “If ignorance is bliss, then why are so many people unhappy?” I found this highly amusing, as the statement above (one I happened to be familiar with) had been misquoted and misspelled. I then wondered where this person had gone to school, that they had such lovely handwriting but such poor spelling. Was English even the artist’s first language? Maybe she had crossed the border from Mexico so as to pursue a better life, and had achieved it in selling $10 paintings on the wall of a poorly frequented cafe. Maybe she had just never gotten enough education to do something better with her life, or maybe that was the highest she had ever striven for. Perhaps, even, that was all she wanted- who was I to say that her life wasn’t meaningful, or fulfilling, or happy? I had never met this woman; how could I possibly think I was intelligent or powerful enough to make that decision for her? This lead me to people throughout history who have placed themselves in positions that they felt allowed them to make these decisions, or even greater decisions than that, such as who could live, and who must die. In the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf says, “Many who live deserve death, and some who die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not deal out death in judgment, for even the very wise cannot see all ends.” I think this is a very wise quote, and one that should be remembered by anyone with enough power to make decisions that might cost lives. One such ruler, who’s not particularly famous here, but is rather infamous in Madagascar, is Ranavalona I, also known as the Mad Queen of Madagascar. While she was queen, nearly a third of her nation died. Was she truly evil? What thoughts went through her mind as she made the choices that led to this? No one but she has the answers, and she’s been dead for years. Thus, my rambling thoughts came to an end, and, thus, I managed to go from a quote on a wall to Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar.