Once on a road trip, we were behind a truck on an interstate and smelled something funny. My friend was driving, and as he passed the truck, we saw the Nestle logo on the side of the trailer. We were smelling chocolate, not anything toxic.
One thing we couldn't do: we couldn't choose not to smell it as long as we were behind or beside the truck. But other times, we may encounter a smell, such as a dead animal or excrement, and immediately flee. We don't dwell in the smell.
Just as we spit something out that tastes rotten. We avert our eyes when we encounter ugliness. We pull away when we touch something hot. We cover our ears to muffle excessively loud sounds.
The film Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds claims that the ancients viewed thought as one of the senses with smell, taste, sight, touch, and hearing. I agree. We can't control a thought entering the brain any more than we can control these "sense"-ations.
Thoughts, of course, accompany anything we sense. They may also come without the senses. In normal times, all of our senses are active unless we consciously choose to block them off by closing eyes, muffling ears, etc. Likewise, we're almost always receiving thoughts. Some thoughts are triggered by memories, such as when seeing a familiar actor or hearing an old song. Other thoughts seem to come out of the blue.
While driving through farm country and passing a cattle feedlot, the smell of manure may envelop your car, but if you're going at highway speed, it soon passes. Would you instead pull over and say, "I wish I never smelled that" while you continue to smell it?
If a song comes on the radio that you dislike, would you sit and listen while saying to yourself "I wish this song didn't come on?" Wouldn't you turn the dial or shut the radio off?
Would you wear a shirt if it itches while saying "I wish I never put on this shirt?" Watch a movie you've already seen and didn't enjoy? Keep eating something distasteful?
Would you persist in forcing your senses to experience things they don't enjoy?
It seems like we do that with our thoughts. Thoughts come; we can't control that. Some of them are unpleasant: they may invoke regrets of the past, dissatisfaction with the present, or worry about the future.
When we encounter something unpleasant in our other five senses, our impulse is to make an immediate change in the environment: we keep driving, we switch stations, change shirts, watch something else, order a different dish.
With the unpleasant thought, however, we often refuse to let it go. We dwell in that unpleasant state.
That's why thought should be viewed as the sixth sense. When our other senses tell us something is bad, we change the situation as quickly as possible.
Once we recognize an unhappy thought, we should do the same. That change can be made instantly.
James Leroy Wilson writes from Nebraska. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoy his articles, subscribe and exchange value for value. You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com. Permission to reprint is granted with attribution.
For sports-only content, subscribe to The MVP Chase.