I have a meme saved that shows a slack-jawed llama and the words, "I can't brain today. I have the dumb," floating above its head. I relate to that llama in profound ways. We all have days when we are foggy-headed llamas. You might find yourself reading the same paragraph three times before the meaning finally (sorta) sinks in, or you schedule a meeting only to forget to instantly put it in your calendar. A classic recurring moment of my llama brain is when I take my son to school in the morning. The way to his school takes me past my office, so I drive past my office, drop him off, and then backtrack to work. On more than one occasion, I have pulled into my office parking lot before dropping him off. He incredulously asks each time, "I am sitting right here beside you; how did you forget to drop me off?" Good question, buddy. Or how often have you been in a high-pressure situation only to find that your well-constructed thoughts come out as a word salad or stunned silence? Naturally, your eloquence returns at 2 am as you lay in bed ruminating on your jumbled interaction.
It really feels like our brains abandon us when we most need them. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why it feels that way: it's because our brains DO abandon us under duress. The logical frontal lobe part of our brain does, anyway. For all the good it does us, it's often the first to high-tail it out at the first sign of danger. It seems ironic that we most need our problem-solving skills when those skills want to go offline. Why the heck is that?
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