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Wednesday night I was laying in bed with Alban and had the following conversation:
M: You need to try to close your eyes and fall asleep.
A: Mama, my brain tells me that I should not go to sleep. It is too boring.
M: Well, I hate to disagree with your brain but you need to go to sleep even if it is boring.
A: Mama, my brain tells me lots of things.
M: Yes? Like what?
A: Well, like it tells me not to go to sleep. It tells me to do things like take a plane away from Oscar even if Oscar doesn’t want me to take the plane away from him.
M: Do you take the plane away from Oscar even though you know you shouldn’t?
A: Yes! I do because my brain tells me to do it.
M: Yes, well, maybe you should tell you brain to be quiet.
A: I DO!! But my brain does not listen to me!
Dualism would have us believe that our existence is proven by our ability to think. Mindfulness Meditation teaches that we are not what we think. Parenting once again takes me from the abstract to the concrete to the abstract: clearly it is no longer Descartes versus Thich Nhat Hahn but the voices inside my child’s head telling him to do naughty things that require action and mindful attention.
Maybe I can tell it to be quiet. If that works it would be the first time it listened to me.
