More Thinking About Thinking

What happens when you overuse one muscle group? After several days of fly fishing, I’m sure several of you may have personally experienced overuse injuries in the form of inflammation like tendonitis, muscle strain, and stress. If this overuse is repeated enough, it can even lead to muscle imbalance where the overused muscle becomes abnormally tight, forcing opposing or underused muscles to weaken leading to chronic pain.

At a very early age, one of my sons, Nick, became enthralled in hunting, fishing and anything related to those activities. For example, he started shooting with a bow and arrows when he was barely out of diapers. Eventually, at a relatively young age, he even participated in and won various 3D archery events, as well as rifle and black-powder target shooting, trap and sporting clays shotgun events. He was 13 years old when he won the NRA’s International Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC) Junior Division. That event was held at the NRA’s giant 33,000-acre Whittington Center near Raton, New Mexico.

Nick took great pleasure in practicing and competing in those endeavors, but his body eventually paid a toll. At a chiropractic spine check, it was obvious that Nick was developing an abnormal curvature of his spine—and it was easy to see the cause. The muscles on the one side of his back were unusually large compared to those on the other side. Pulling back a bow, as well as, raising, shouldering and shooting various long guns repeatedly had, over time, strengthened one side of his back well beyond the development of the other side.

As a result, Nick was advised to do exercises aimed at strengthening and growing the muscles on the left side of his back to help them catch up with and balance out with his massive, hypermuscular right side. This included, daily stretching of surgical tubing, as if pulling back a bow, but with his left arm.

If you’ve read my posts in the FATC FORUM and/or attended some of the FATC BOOK STUDIES, you probably noticed that sometimes I like to think about thinking. And as hopefully we all know, thinking starts in the brain (duh).

I grew up in the 1900s and back then people talked in terms of being left-brained or right-brained people. “Left-brained” people (stereotypically men) were considered analytical and logical. “Right-brained” (stereotypically women) were considered artsy and creative. Eventually, this perspective fell out of favor. It seemed clumsy and an over simplification, and arguably sexist.

However, I just read in a great, newly-published book, THE MEANING OF YOUR LIFE —Finding Purpose In An Age of Emptiness by Arthur C. Brooks that in recent years, the concept has come back—in a new and much more precise form. In his book Brooks explains that now the experts argue that the two halves of the brain do not so much have different functions; each hemisphere deals with just about everything. But they do so in consistently different ways. Now evidence suggests that the right side of the brain is the “master,” which asks big, transcendent questions such as “Why am I alive?” The left side addresses such practical questions as “How do I get food so I can keep being alive?” Brooks says, in the right hemisphere we ask the why questions about life. On the left side, we ask what to do now and how to do it.

The book goes on to say both hemispheres of the brain are relevant to the business of living, but the right side’s mysterious questions need to take precedence over the left side’s more mundane ones, for life to make sense. Brooks says, “After all, without an answer to the big issues of the why of life, a human may ultimately have no good reason to find food and stay alive?

Brooks goes on to say, “The left side of the brain manages what is clear and straightforward in life—the necessary but prosaic tasks you do all day. The right side deals with what is spiritual, mysterious, and awe-inspiring in life.” A good word for this is numinous, which means a feeling of wonder with a touch of the unknown. This is where you understand things that defy description and precise definition.

How can you recognize the numinous, right-hemisphere experiences in your own life? Here are some clues that David Brooks offers in his book. (The following is a direct quote:)

• Something moves you inexplicably, even if outwardly it seems silly. Say you hear a beautiful song and get choked up. If someone asks why, you can’t say. Or you hear a train whistle and it evokes a childhood memory that is sweet to you but would sound trivial to anyone else.
• In a conversation with your partner, you understand their words perfectly, But something isn’t “sitting” quite right and you know there is a problem.
• You know intuitively that something exists but you adequately describe it. For example, you are sure you are called to do something with your life—something bigger than yourself. But you can’t say what its is.
• You have a craving for an experience much deeper than your ordinary day-to-day existence. For example, someone describes a spiritual retreat and you badly want to go, even though you aren’t especially religious. You have an inchoate sense of a divine presence you might be able to reach.
• Something is vitally important to you—the center of your life—but you can’t put the importance into words. Someone asks why you love your spouse and you say something silly like “She is good to me,” which could apply equally to your third-grade teacher.
• You are beguiled and attracted by something that reminds you of your suffering. Perhaps it’s that sad song that takes you back to a miserable breakup but connects you with your heart and reminds you that you are still alive even after all that pain.
• These experiences cannot be simulated, only lived and experienced in real life. They are also, not coincidentally, where you find your life’s meaning… (end of quote)

For me, John, looking back on my life, I now see that at the very least metaphorically, the right side of my brain was underdeveloped from lack of use (so to speak). My encounter with God after the pain of my first divorce seemed to wake up the right side of my brain. It was as if God hit me with a defibrillator. And by God’s grace, I got another hit from God’s defibrillator after my second divorce. Together they not only started my quest for the meaning of my life, but also later reenergized that quest. You might say, God not only gave me life, he gave me a life.

I was wondering. What about you? Do you think the right side of your brain might be underdeveloped? Have you been successful in your job as a result of a very strong, well-developed left-side of your brain? Have you been less than successful in your relationships with others and with God? If you have thoughts of seeking true significance and better retionshiops, could it mean that the right side of your brain is working, but it needs some concerted exercise to grow? Do you think there might be ways to exercise the right side of our brain?

I’m planning on another annual FATC BOOK STUDY, starting in early September, 2026. And as you might have guessed by now, the book will be THE MEANING OF YOUR LIFE —Finding Purpose In An Age of Emptiness by Arthur C. Brooks. But don’t wait until then to start thinking about your thinking and how you might try to exercise the right side of your brain.

Feel free to share your thoughts here on the FATC FORUM about this or about whatever is on your mind. By the way, the process might be great exercise for the right side of your brain. Remember our motto: It’s not just about the fly fishing.

John Muckerman

FATC Inspirational and Leadership Lead