Who the heck is Ralph?

 

Thanks to you wonderful cyber friends, this blog has had over 12,000 views. This means that someone must enjoy my ramblings and better than that, some of you are telling your friends about it. So as the readership grows and we have a new group of readers, it seems that a lot of folks want to know who Ralph is so I will try to explain.

Ralph is the “voice in my head”. He tends to live on my right shoulder so he can whisper in my right ear. When I can’t find him on my right shoulder, it is because he got tired of the scenery and is over on the left shoulder. Conveniently for him, there is an ear on each side so he can always “whisper in my ear”. Some of you are probably thinking about now that I am totally insane. The reality is that each and every one of us have a “Ralph”. I just choose to acknowledge his presence and existence. I first acknowledged Ralph many years ago as a paramedic. I learned that if Ralph was whispering that “something is WRONG!” there usually was, whether I had identified it or not. We have had quite an interesting relationship through the years, some days great while some days he is just a royal pain in the butt.

 Each of us usually have three things inside our heads. Obviously a brain, “that little voice” and a filter. How these three distinct entities interact can vary from person to person as well as from second to second in the individual. I will let some neurologist or psychiatrist attempt to explain the brain thing, but I will give you some insight into the filter and “THE VOICE”.

First, let’s look at the filter. The filter is present to keep the words that come out of our mouths and our physical actions from embarrassing us or worse, harming and maiming other human beings and ourselves. Unfortunately, filters do not always work. In order for them to work, one must first turn them on (sometimes I forget). Additionally, for the filter to work the input cannot be greater than output or the system overflows. And lastly, things like human emotion, alcohol, genetics, drugs (both recreational and therapeutic), and our friends can have a seriously detrimental effect on the functional capability of our filters.

Now on to “THE VOICE”

As stated above, each of us have a “voice in our head”. While yours may not have a name, it is definitely there. Some of you describe him/her (after all this is a gender neutral blog) as a “narrator”, some choose to ignore them, and some have yet to discover their existence. Ralph is a mixture of morals, ethics, life experience, situational stress, and occasionally all of the above mixed in a big pot that boils over totally exceeding the filter’s capabilities. Most of the time Ralph is mild mannered and serves as the voice of reason.

For instance, Ralph usually won’t let you say things that make your co-workers cry. However he may facilitate you explaining to them that their entire brain function is comparable to that of an amoeba. He has told folks that they were dumber than floor tile adhesive. The worst events occur when I forget to turn the filter on and Ralph is feeling “really frisky”. Ralph has been known to spend hours at a time sitting in an airport throwing fashion flags. On the other hand, Ralph and I have sat in the floor consoling a child whose doll has a broken arm. When a relative calls and asks for money, Ralph is the one who blurts out,” OH HELL NO!” I hope this sheds some light on Ralph.

Till next time!