the brain decides...

“the brain decides, not the individual that encases it”
Joseph Heller wrote that in:
“Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man”
and when I read it,
I stopped
marked it off as something worth noting
not sure why, it just stopped me in my tracks
did it resonate the Cartesian duality?
mind & body
one w/ & w/out their other?
was it a fascination w/the thought?
the idea
the separation
the definition
of self & individual
mind & body
life & living
or was it something else?
the words?
the story?
mine, his, the characters'?
in the end I just accepted that
“the brain decides, not the individual that encases it”
put the pen down
& turned the page.

what do you think?

-2003