Remember the old puzzle from the sixties? About not being able to get there from here? Well I still experience that, but in the form of not being able to get my brain to do something. Specifically I go back to one of my oldest puzzlements: What must life be like for people whose lives are different from mine? Not just different but weirdly, surreally, bizarrely different from mine. Example:
There are millions of people across the world who live in garbage dumps. They sleep there. They find food there. They are born there. They grow up, form relationships, have parties, have not-parties, entertain friends, and eventually die there. Here's a picture from a dump in Mexico City. This is what some guy named Juan sees when he steps out on his front doorstep.
Now, here's what my front yard looks like.
I don't even know how to begin imagining the difference between Juan's yard and mine. The main things I do in my yard are mowing and weeding. My yard is pretty much what I want it to be. If an inconsiderate neighbor pitched an empty pop can into my yard, I would see it the moment I stepped out onto my front door step. I suppose Juan might see an extra empty can of pop in his yard too because he is probably at least as familiar with his yard as I am with mine.
A couple years ago, a molar in my mouth cracked. It hurt. Within a day, however, I was in a dentist's chair having it removed and replaced with a prosthetic tooth. What would Juan have done? My guess is that he would have started out the way I did: He would have hurt. But where I went to see a dentist, Juan probably started his day and did what he usually does. He rummaged among the new garbage to find food that hadn't rotted too badly to eat. Of course one person's "too badly" is another person's "are you out of your mind?" Go to a dentist? What's that? A dentist?
Is my brain simply too small? I can look at a photograph and accept that this is what Juan's front yard looks like, but that's the extent of my imagination. And I am an imaginative guy. Some people's lives are really different from mine.