Tiny Bubbles

I have this theory about consciousness. Bear with me and let me be cliche for a minute. I envision a stream...of consciousness, har har...flowing over a murky bottom. (Maybe, if you're stupid, it's more like a stagnant pool.) This murky bottom is your subconscious. Now, during the course of the regular day, you are assaulted by stimuli. In today's society, it's damn near sensory overload. The big things that you are actively engaged in - working, conversations, hobbies - all enter the stream. The little stuff like the commercial on the TV in the other room that you hear while fixing supper, I imagine just kind of skipping across the surface.

But every once in a while, one of these little ideas...concepts...nuggets...sinks like a rock. Straight through your consciousness - you might not even be aware of it - and plunks down in the mud of your subconscious. There, it festers.

"What the hell are you rambling about?" Bear with me, I'm getting to my point.

You ever get aroused for absolutely no damn good reason? (Every male reader just nodded.) You ever daydream about nothing in particular and then, as you snap out of it, are overcome by a sense of fear/joy/sadness/anger, but you can't figure out why?

I think that transitions to and from consciousness have a chance to disturb these little nuggets that are effervescing down below the surface. And sometimes...POP!...the thought bubbles out.

All of the sudden you're sitting at your desk at work wondering why the hell you're thinking about Jamie Lee Curtis in that damn Activia commercial...