Completion

As a teenager I worked at McDonald's, like thousands of other Canadians. It was truly a remarkable place to work. There were so many amazing and unique individuals working there. I do not know if something attracted such people, or if the stressful work conditions weeded out the weaker souls, but for some reason there seemed to be a cadre of intelligent and like able people the whole time I worked there. Conversation around the tiny staff room table was wont to be about any number of subjects. I remember one day listening to the car stereo my friend Roger had installed in the wall. Bruce Cockburn was blaring from the speakers.


Ken- (singing) "If I had a Rocket Lawn Chair..."


Me- What???


Ken-I'm singing along. "I'd blow them all away!"


Me-A Rocket What?


Ken- "Lawn Chair"


Me- It's Rocket Launcher! How can you blow something away with a Rocket Lawn Chair?


Ken- I thought he was trying to escape the cares of the world on his rocket propelled lawn chair.


Me- This is like last week when you thought Neil Diamond was singing about "Reverend Blue Jeans"


Dave- It's called completion.


Ken- The song?


Dave- No the psychological phenomenon you are talking about.


Me- Are we talking about psychology, I thought we were talking about Neil Diamond?


Ken- What's completion"


Dave- Completion is when the brain gets insufficient or conflicting information it fills in the bits it doesn't get. Like one, two, four, five...


Ken- I get it, Four!


Richard- Three!


Dave- You got it, Richard. Your mind fills in what is missing with something that makes sense.


Me- Rocket Lawn Chair doesn't make any sense.


Dave- Apparently it does to Ken!The human brain's a miraculous thing, nature abhors a vacuum.


Ken- National Whores Vacuum?


Richard- Ken, your brain is whacked!


Dave- No, it's just that he perceives it differently than you do Richard that's why his interpretation is different.


Richard- Different isn't the word for it.


Ken- Thanks, Dave, see Richard I'm not whacked, I just have a different imperfection than you do.


Richard- Interpretation! Though I'm not sure what language you are interpreting.


Me- That's what I like, I learn something new every day.




Dave- It happens with vision too, if you had, say, a blind spot and you looked at a pattern your mind would fill in the pattern. Say you had a migraine, sometimes they are accompanied by a temporary blind spot. If you looked at a brick wall your mind would fill in the missing bricks.



Me- That's cool, what if there were a picture hanging right in the middle of my blind spot?



Dave- You wouldn't even see it! You would just see bricks.

Me- You see I learned something new!

Ken- I just wanted to listen to some good tunes. Hey, Led Zeppelin! "I'll be flying British Airways at seven!"

Dave- I give up!

Like I said great conversation.