I ran a new route this morning. Most of it runs parallel to a set of railroad tracks. On my return trip, a train was coming at me from the opposite direction. My brain made the assessment that I was running at roughly 5mph and the train was moving at probably 30mph. Intellectually, my brain understood this. Then it began recomputing my perception of this speeding train. My first thought was, “I’m going slower.” I knew I wasn’t and I didn’t actually feel like I was. I just knew that I could perceive the situation that way. And if I thought about it long enough, I might actually start to slow down. As I focused on not slowing down, I realized there was an equally valid perception. I could have thought I was going faster. I began to wonder why my mind would jump to the negative perception almost instinctively.
I don’t have any words of wisdom right now. I’d like to see what kind of conversation can be started from this.