A while ago, I heard an analogy of how different types of brains work… there is the Waffle brain and the Spaghetti brain. (I have also heard it be Boxes and Wires).
A Waffle brains process life in boxes. If you look down at a waffle, you see a collection of boxes separated by walls. The boxes are separate from each other and make a convenient holding places. Waffle brains thinking is divided up into boxes that have room for one issue and one issue only. The first issue of life goes in the first box, the second goes in the second box and so on. A Waffle brain lives in one box at a time and one box only. When a they are at work, they are at work. When they are working on a home project, they are working on the project. When they are watching TV they are simply watching TV. That is why they look as though they are in a trance, and can ignore everything else going on around them. There is even a nothing box…. and they REALLY are thinking NOTHING! This is normally how a man’s brain works.
Spaghetti brains process life more like a plate of pasta. If you look at a plate of spaghetti, you notice there are lots of individual noodles that all touch one another. If you attempt to follow one noodle around the plate, you will intersect a lot of other noodles, and you might even switch to another noodle seamlessly. Spaghetti brains face life in the same way. Every thought and issue is connected to every other thought and issue in some way. Life is much more of a process for the spaghetti brain than it is for the waffle brain. Normally this is how a woman’s brain works. This is why a woman it typically better at multitasking than a man. A Spaghetti brain can talk on the phone, prepare a meal, make a shopping list, work on the agenda for tomorrow, give instructions to the kids as they are going out to play, and close the door with their foot without skipping a beat.
In our family…. waffles do not necessary mean a man… and spaghetti doesn’t have to mean woman. I am a Waffle brain and Robert is Spaghetti. Ethan is Spaghetti and so is McCara… but Robbie and Lena are Waffles. It is fun to see how each other’s brains work.. it also makes conversation with each other easier, since we understand the way the other person’s brain is working.
Robert and I use this analogy a lot when talking with each other, and therefore the kids have heard and kind of know what it means.
This whole post is because of something funny Lena said today “My brain has boxes that keep all my memories… my baby memories didn't get a box, that is why I don't remember them.” She got a little confused as to what the boxes are for :)
