Thinking in Pictures

When I read or hear words, I see pictures. You say the word "bear" and I see a big fat one, ambling about eating berries like the illustrations in my childhood book, Blueberries for Sal. Which can be confusing and lead to all sorts of amusing things happening in my mind. Suppose then you tell me that you actually meant "bare", and suddenly the unfortunate bear is a pink and hairless kind of naked. It can make for some awkward conversations if I suddenly burst out laughing for no apparent reason.

I naively thought that everyone's mind worked that way. Why I would ever think I was the norm, I have no clue! Turns out my Dear Friend sees words in her mind. I say "bear" and she sees it written out. Now that she knows my particular sickness, if she is talking and see me grinning like a loon, she'll say, "What are you seeing?"

A good example of this (or bad, depending on your sensibilities) is a conversation my boys and I were having in the car. It was a discussion about the merits of different superheroes, and really it is never ending in its exhaustiveness.  This time we were talking about who would win if Thor and the Hulk actually fought. We were arguing each of their strengths, until someone invariably pulled The Wolverine Card. As in, what if Wolverine went up against the winner? And that is the end of the discussion for that moment, because Wolverine can't be killed and is just stinking awesome in every way. I mean, just about every situation can be solved with The Wolverine Card. Newsbreak: "NASA has landed on Mars and discovered hostile alien life! What will we do?" Send in Wolverine! See what I mean? Good in every situation.Well, there was that once, when my oldest mentioned that Superman could take Wolverine out of  the atmosphere and leave him floating in space. But that does seem like a terrible cheating thing to do, and not very Superman-like at all. 

But I digress.

So my youngest was talking about how great Captain America and his friend, Bucky, The Winter Soldier, were. They ought to have their own movie, he decided, called Cap an' Bucky. (You have to remember that we are southern and don't have to use all the letters in words. We're saving up the extras for when there might be a need.)

Well, I started laughing. Not the light, fluffy Southern Belle kind of laugh, but the snorting and cackling kind, more like Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies. My middle son, who was driving, rolled his eyes at me and said, "What did you see?"

I gasped enough breath to describe a huge buck-toothed beaver, wearing a rakishly tipped pirate hat and brandishing a sword, saying, "ARRR, I'm Capt'n Bucky!" It still brings tears to my eyes.

Of course, Einstein saw things in pictures. Not that I would liken myself to a genius. (Especially not after you know the pirate beaver story.) Of course, Einstein never wore socks with his shoes his whole adult life for fear they would get holes in them, and saw no virtue in combing one's hair. Still a great guy and all.

Tesla, a personal hero, also saw in pictures. However, his were so pronounced that from childhood someone could say a word and he would see a picture so vividly that he could not tell if it was in his mind, or actually in the room with him. (Now that would be terrifying with giant beaver pirates!) He also loved a pigeon ("I love her as a man loves a woman...") so much that when she died he said that his life's work was over. Poor dear.

Just sayin' that the whole pictorial image thing may have hints of genius, but it also smacks of downright nuttiness. You've been warned, Dear Reader. 

So, which are you? Do you see pictures, or words? Or is there a whole realm of possibilities that I don't know about? People who see things in Morse code, Elvin script, scientific notation...now I have so much to think about!