2014-01-10

Whole E-Communion

If you took a Catholic communion wafer, or a wheat thin — if you're atheist or not affiliated — or some Wonder Bread — if you're Mormon... ;-) — and lit it on fire with a butane lighter, it would probably burn up sort of like a stick of wood. In other words, the carbohydrate molecules would rapidly oxidize, producing water vapor, carbon dioxide, and soot. It's “Caloric” would presumably be released from it into the surrounding ether, exciting the molecules of air around it momentarily, passing the heat energy on until it dissipates and is gone. The radius of it's effect will be small. This does not seem like a very Good use of that wheat, does it?

If instead you accept the proffered bit of breadstuff, and eat it, your salivary enzymes will begin breaking the complex carbohydrates down into simpler sugars as you chew it up. After you finish “ruminating” and swallow it, the digestive process will continue... the sugars will be absorbed into your bloodstream and from there carried throughout your body, where it will be taken up by the cells. Inside each cell's mitochondria, those sugars will be broken down one chemical bond at a time. The energy released by that will be used to “fuel” the cell's activities, whether it be for thought or action. This seems like a much better use of that wheat, right? Well, depending, of course, upon what sort of thoughts or actions one uses that energy for... And obviously enough, the radius of it's effect will depend upon who you share those ideas with, whether those people agree they are good ideas, whether they remember them, and upon whether or not anyone takes your Fine Words to heart and actually does anything with them, in terms of fine actions that speak louder than fine words... and does the right thing not involving suppression of the ideas you are attempting to promulgate... Yup; hope you see where this is multi-headed.

Now think of the burning wheat thin as anger, and the metabolized one as political or social action. Burning up with anger over something does not really serve you well. Anger is a form of expression that carries with it an implicit threat of violence. When you threaten violence, it puts people on the defensive. They are then less likely to focus on the thing you are saying is wrong or on your proposed solution to that problem. They will instead be concerned with whether or not you are a threat to the security of their person! The Golden Key is to remain calm, and carefully state your concerns in a non-threatening and intelligent fashion, to increase the likelihood that your audience will choose to consume, digest, and absorb the things you are attempting to convey into their mental storehouses, where it can become part of the context of mind within which their experiences of the everyday world are processed.

This is why laughter is far more powerful than scream! Bon Appetite, Monstewers!