For reasons I can't really explain I want to celebrate the right hemisphere of the brain or my brain. I'm not a brain specialist, although I've read a little here and there about brain science. I've spent much of my adult life using the left hemisphere. I'm an economic historian and a number cruncher, and my time has been largely devoted to calculating and charting. I'm assuming that's more work for the left side than the right side. I don't know how all the tasks get split up between the two spheres, but I've read that some tasks entail both hemispheres. I've simply thought of myself as more the leftist than the rightest.

I've not been right-side brain dead. I've spent more hours in museums, concert halls, opera houses, galleries, more hours reading contemporary fiction and poetry and more hours daydreaming than should be allowed. I'm assuming - but I don't know - if I were using the right, the left or something in between. My interaction with or my reaction these experiences seemed to be unlike what I was used to when I was churning out stuff from the left side. Then, a few years ago one of those transformative moments. I had been thinking about writing a memoir-sort-of-thing only to discover that the story of the son of parents who were barely educated and hardly worldly and the life he created for himself was not very interesting. (Nor have I found the few memoirs of the thousands being published very interesting.) By accident, I began to make up stuff, embroider my own experiences and write of tales I wish had happened but never did. I was hooked on lying.

In fact I discovered to my surprise I had scores of tales stuck away in some memory bank I didn't know about. The became the raw materials for the fiction I was trying to write. A new kind of writing began that depended more on the right than the left hemisphere. Imaging and creating directly rather than trying to make sense out of a pile of notes. The more I wrote the more I explored my right hemisphere, and here we are - in praise of the right hemisphere.

I've long recorded my dreams and have long puzzled over where they originated, what they meant and why they existed. I used to discuss these dreams with a therapist when I was briefly in therapy, and I continue to use some of his analytical frames. Because of a big dream world I've always wanted to be psychoanalyzed, but it hasn't happened and probably won't, although I live in a place that may have more Freudians per square inch than any place else. I'm also a daydreamer - in the light or in the dark -just letting my mind wander wherever - no focus, no destination - and as a kid and an adult I've been chided for opening up the Devil's playground. (You have to have been raised a Calvinist to understand that thought.) Lately, I've read about neural dark matter or technically the "dark mode network" (DMN), regions of the brain thought to be idle but in fact may be exuding more energy than the task-related regions. Indeed, my mental let-be may be allowing the DMN regions of the brain to do their stuff. With science behind me I plan to keep this zaniness alive. Is this more right than left at work? It feels that way.

Here are some terms, which people-in-the-know claim, may differentiate the right and left spheres. I can't attest to their scientific or experimental accuracy, but they sort of fit a common-sense mold.
Right uses feeling, Left logic, R likes big picture, L small detail, R preoccupied with imagination, L with fact, R embraces symbols & images, present & future, philosophy & religion, L words & language, present & past, math & science, R appreciates, L acknowledges, R fantasy-based, L reality-based, R impetuous, L practical, and my all-time favorite, R can "get it" even as L can comprehend it. Although a political lefty, I'll take the risk. Of course, we're never just one or the other, but I like the chance to release the power of the right side.

Test you right brain versus your left brain at
http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5687820,00.gif
If you see figure turning clockwise, your right side is in charge; if counterclockwise your left side. BUT by staring at it you can observe a change in direction. We have 2 sides and we need both!

drawing in the upper corner by peter sickman-garner, creator of Hey Mister  among other things - i confess a relative.

i am richard l. garner with a phd but who cares.

you’ll find me on facebook...i also own an eclectic site http://www.insidemydesk.com and an ultra-serious site http://www.historydatadesk.com...my twitter name is noillusions.

you can reach me at richlygarner@gmail.com.

my primary home is ann arbor, my real home is paris.

i was a retiree-ski-bum for 6 years at lake tahoe.

A favorite line from an early Sylvia Plath poem, "Mad Girls Love Song", about her lover:
(I think I made you up inside my head)
To my lovers, since you've mostly disappeared without a word, I've decided
(I think I made you up inside my head).

i'm nasty, inconsiderate, grumpy, quirky - exiled almost everywhere i've worked - and then my nephew, michael, with 1 photo, had to undo a reputation i've spent a lifetime cultivating.

Do you have a list of pieces of art you wished you owned but can't. The 3 pieces below I wish were on my walls. If you ask me why, I can only say that I can't quit looking at them.

MAX BECKMANN

JOAN MIRO

RENE MAGRITTE