The Book of Ashes

The child cycle... 12:11PM

""We all began as thoughts in anothers mind. Abrasive clues as to what we would end up being. Did your parents plan for you to end up how you are or did it just... happen? How much better could you have been if taught right? How inefficient has your life been? How many brain cells would you still have left if you'd never drunk alcohol and how would it feel to be that much smarter? Are you just going to let your kids work life out for themselves as your parents did to you or do you have a plan? Not many people have a plan. Most learn along the way, most make mistakes as they go at the childs expense. Then the child ends up being normal. Just like you. Then the cycle repeats. We all begin as thoughts in anothers mind. Abrasive clues as to what we will be...""

- from The Child Cycle

Its cold today, or so my feet are telling me. Put on socks they say. Keep us warm and we'll stop sending cold signals to you, you stupid fucking brain. Why the hell aren't you putting socks on us...

[short break while Ash bends down to put socks on. he notices that his feet are purple and that indeed they are cold. stupid fucking feet he thinks. why do they have to get cold and go purple? he sits back up and continues to type...]

I have been learning about nerves and pain and how the body interprets and handles it. You would be interested to know that our spinal cord where all the nerves join up and head out to the great brain have whats called pain gates on them. These so called gates have a threshold value below which all pain (or sense) is ignored. Hence you don't feel your leg as you sit unless you focus on it. When focusing on it the brain lowers the threshold on that pain gate therefore allowing through more information making you more sensitive to that particular area. Try noticing your left hand. Focus on it and try to feel as much as you can about it. You might notice more feeling and sensation than you usually would. When you body is hurt or senses pain above the threshold level then it takes notice. If it is too high it takes action, releasing certain chemicals to spread the pain and making the affected area sensitive. Hence if you smack your hand on the table it will throb and hurt for a while making sure that you are careful of it while it heals up. If you rub that area you create sensations there which compete with the pain sensation hence dulling it a little. This is why you rub a sore area on your body. Another interesting fact is that there are different kinds of senses that are picked up, heat, cold (yes two different things), movement, pressure and pain (damage such as cuts etc). Out of these the pain is the most copious kind and the cold sense is the least. Why then are my feet sending me so many damn cold signals? Is it really that cold?

Today I spread the word. The Perihelion cause must survive. I am seeking out cool websites to tell them of our excellence in the hope that they agree and will link to us, sending us more willing disciples to read our great words. Damn, hands are now ganging up on me with the feet and telling me they're cold too. Shouldn't be wearing shorts and a T-shirt maybe?