When many of us think, it involves an internal verbal monologue wherein thoughts tend to mimic (or copy) what one’s voice sounds like (when actual speaking to others occurs). (During such “thinking,” the internal voice is a simulation.) When verbal monologue thinking occurs in terms of one’s own voice, it’s not really what involves your vocal cords moving; as was said, it’s a simulation of the voice. Additionally, some of us also think visually… depending on mental patterns of images. These mental visual patterns also consist of visual simulations. When a forest is mentally visualized, it’s not an actual forest; it’s a simulation of a forest. Then too, there is “pattern thinking” wherein held patterns are mentally analyzed for how they fit together in relationship, perhaps even somewhat holistically. Thinking is largely second-hand, imitative, a response of memory, simulation-oriented, and is essentially fragmentary and limited. Most of us cling to the patterns of thinking — we are the patterns of thinking — and we remain there (habitually). Often being beyond all that may be prudent and extremely wise (and need not involve more of this habitual simulation, monkey business to do so).
You may wish to watch the following short PBS Digital Studios video:
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Very cool! 😎
Thanks, MT. Take care! 😊
You’re very welcome Tom! #GoodWorks ❤️
Interesting concepts in the video. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Michele. So how do whales think?
You’re welcome. Mostly underwater. Visually perhaps and by making connections with their own form of language. Great question! I would love to ask them. 🐳
Your essay and the video were very interesting Tom as was that little wiggle but of the Carpenter ant as he got down to the business of gnawing wood. I think all of our thinking is muddled today, just by virtue of everything swirling around us that we have no control over. That fact continues to permeate my thoughts.
I am a bit behind here having seized the opportunity to get out for two days of long walks with the camera, something I’ve not done in a while, but the weather was perfect … I needed to be out in nature, even though I learned just how cruel nature can be when, this past Wednesday I asked a walker at Council Point Park, who walks there all Winter, no matter how icy it is, where the squirrels were. I decided this Winter there was no way I would walk on the icy pathway, that the City stopped plowing/brushing many years ago and it was horribly icy when I walked in early January. It was not worth it, though I fretted about the squirrels and birds I feed there. But I didn’t want to risk a fall, not to mention flu/COVID/Norovirus/RSV and Pneumonia were/still are all running rampant here in SE Michigan, so a trip to the E.R. would not have been good either.
After resuming my daily walking regimen last weekend, I have only seen a handful of squirrels (not the usual 35-40+ that usually greet me). Where were they? I was afraid some had died of starvation (they couldn’t access food from the ground as it was frozen) or frozen to death – so who were these few that I saw? And the ones who were there were scared of me, cowering behind a tree or running up the tree.
So, I asked the other walker if he saw squirrels all Winter as I had only been there about a dozen times all Winter and at odd times, trying to go later in the day when a little thaw might be happening. He said he saw coyote pawprints on the frozen Creek and Bald Eagles flying overhead for weeks. I was very sad to hear this. Hopefully a few males and females are left and will be able to start families … last year they destroyed half of the park to remediate the Creek flooding (it didn’t work) and took away the squirrel and bird habitats – now this.
I am sorry that squirrels have such a precarious existence (in your area) due to natural and stupid-manmade circumstances. It was a very harsh winter (temperature-wise); that’s for sure!
Forget about walking on icy pathways. Being older, we have to not risk falling. Breaking a hip, for instance, would be devastating.
I have not seen any squirrels in my yard lately. There are coyotes and other predators in this area, but i am really suspicious of feral cats. The neighbor accross the street owns the house but no longer lives there. But he comes there to feed his cats (most of whom are inside the house). But i suspect that some are outside also (and may have eaten the squirrels).
I have a partial fossil squirrel skull from the Oligocene period (around 30 million years ago). So these wonderful creatures have been around a long time!… which is so awesome!
I am angry what happened Tom – had they not torn down the one side of the Park, they would have had more safe havens in the trees, but no – they ripped apart the entire shoreline on each side of the Creek and with it icing over, the coyotes had easy access – the Bald Eagles could feed themselves on fish, but no – they had to come here where the squirrels were easy targets as they foraged in the snow.
We had a feral cat at the Park a few years ago. It was eating the shad feeder fish in the Creek and some people bought kibble and water for it and the kibble was gone from the dish (someone built a little shelter for it and put it right on the Park grounds). I never thought of feral cats eating squirrels before, but if any animal is hungry enough, they will eat what food is available.
This was my place that I could go to get away from everything and that ambiance is gone, as are the squirrels. They will hopefully be replenished, but never to the extent that roamed about the Park before. It makes me sad in a time that everything else around here is not only sad but hard to fathom. I look at all the damage from these tornadoes this weekend and just shake my head what is happening with the weather. Wildfires in Oklahoma forced evacuations – 300 homes were lost. We are not just older and cannot risk a fall, but we need to be thankful for every day we live on this Earth without any weather calamities.
I heard no idea squirrels have been around for so long, charming us with their cute antics and begging incessantly and me, the animal lover, enjoys that and hopefully will once again.
Most human beings, these days, don’t know how to respect nature deeply and leave it alone. Too many of us use nature (to get something out of it).
A few months ago, i saw a feral cat go after a squirrel near the riverbank in the backyard. I never saw a cat and a squirrel move so fast. They both moved like lightning. The squirrel managed to get away (up a tree), thank goodness. I enjoy the squirrels and am not at all fond of the feral cats.
Some of the earliest squirrels were from the Eocene Period, around 40 million years ago. It’s so cool and wonderful that they’ve been around for so very long. I hope that they are still around long after our stupid species wipes itself out.
I used to live in Michigan, Linda. Michigan has a lot of wild animals still, fortunately. 😊