How Bendigo came to B and found it beaut: the long and winding road which led to Bendigo. A poem I thunked up while sleeping. (No, really.)
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“I am the Alpha α and the Omega Ω. The first and the last. The beginning and the end.” And we thought: Good-oh, we’ll be the Beta β. What could be better than the Beta? It’s right next door to the Alpha. And so we began with a B, and found it Beta. B Beta Best, never let it rest till your B is better and your Beta best. Then comest the Be.
When we find ourselves in times of trouble … letter B, let it Be. Speaking words of wisdom, letter B-eeee.
With development, came Ben. His identify lost to the mists of time, but possibly a miner of Scottish extraction. If only he’d found some Scots to extract.
Or as Whacko Jacko trilled: Ben, the two of us need live no more, we’ve both found what we’re looking for. With a hut to call my own, I’ll never be alone. ‘Cos you my friend will see, we have a friend in B.
D snuck up and attached itself to Ben to go around the Bend, past Golden Square, past the park and out to Huntly. And eventually to the far northern Delta.
Bend found itself flexible, adaptable, simply irresistible. And even more so when I appeared. Bendi, Bendi, wherefore art thou Bendi? I’m out at the horse riding farm near Jackass Flat. Big. And much missed.
In fact, I think I am a horse, Bendi, misspelt. I come out of your childhood, a silly looking beastie.
Gee, where did that come from? Did Ben dig? Did he what. The extractor of lost Scots again. Bendig: nearly fully formed but not quite complete. Gee. Perhaps it was an order: Ben! Dig! Oh. There. That’s it.
Bendigo. Extracting Scots in a flexible manner from the ground, hoping to be in something close to an Alpha. A Fiat perhaps? A Lamda, sorry – Lambo. It’s all Geek to me.
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Enough of that. I just wanted to give you a glimpse of the manic nonsense that goes on in my head when sleeping. I swear I am not making this up, but often I wake with fully formed columns just sitting behind my eyelids and I often think: I should write that down before it evaporates.
So I did, and I am truly sorry. I can vaguely recall knitting the above blend of weird and disconnected ideas an hour or so before the alarm went off, and I thought, there might be something worthwhile in it. Clearly, I was wrong.
A study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in the US suggests I may not be alone in this oddity.
Apparently in a deep sleep state, our minds sort and sift the events of the past day or two and often do the filing in an odd way, parking semi-related ideas and linking them as a way of recalling them if needed later on.
“Earlier studies found that people appear better able to remember things they have just learned if they are able to sleep soon after. In effect, they found, the brain appears to use sleep time to consolidate memories.
“This study suggests that the process is still more complex, and that sleep helps people make inferences from bits of knowledge that may at first appear random.”
It also suggested that sometimes, some of the best insights can be had when your mind is having a little holiday, let out to trot about in the wild.
But in this case, more than a little holiday, I suspect it left the reservation altogether.
WAYNE GREGSON