Assignment 21: Right now--Angela Maske

Right now, at this very moment, I am sitting on my front patio in the sun, laptop on my lap, writing this blog post. While I am consciously thinking about what to include in this post, my brain is doing a million other things. It's registering all kinds of stimuli and deciding whether or not they're important enough to bring to my attention. It's holding all sorts of knowledge that I have previously collected and sifting through it, ensuring that the important parts are there for my disposal. It's integrating and evaluating memories, and keeping the random nonsense at bay so that I can focus on the present task. It's regulating my body temperature and blood pressure. It's literally keeping me alive. And I'm not even thinking about it. So the next time you think about your brain, don't take it for granted. Because without it....well, you wouldn't be able to think in the first place.