Randomness

A random remark and conversation about a dog (given I’m not generally a fan of dogs, it really was random) a few days ago led a young woman to describe to me how earlier in the week she had been “jumped” by three guys in a residential street. They pushed her to the ground and repeatedly kicked her in the ribs, when she refused to go with them to the bank machine. Remarkably, the woman, who I’d observed previously to be a patient, gentle individual, now with several broken ribs, had only one big question in relation to it: What was going through their minds while they did it?

Today when listening to that brain programme I thought of that incident again. Those six legs that chose to kick her operated from three different brains. And since they repeatedly kicked her, were those also single individual brains making the choice to do that each time or at that point had they somehow melded into one?

She was able to somehow see a bigger tapestry. Surprisingly she did not express bitterness toward the area where it happened. She was grateful to still have her teeth. It was the question of their minds that had remained with her, even overriding the residual pain of their boots which must have persisted with every inhale of the conversation. I should say that there was nothing religious about this woman, she was not in some kind of forgiveness mode: she genuinely sought an answer to that question.

 We know so little about the brain.