Welcome to Dendrite City
Welcome to Dendrite City, where risk is your reward. That’s what it says on the billboard as you drive into town. What goes on in Dendrite City? I wasn’t sure yet, but I knew I had to know more about dendrites – like, what are they? So I searched it, and the first thing that came up was the actor Nick Nolte talking about mice. And dendrites. That got my attention.
Nick was appearing in a documentary called Wisdom, and he was giving his two minutes' worth. “There are three mice in this experiment,” said Nolte, “each in a separate cage. The first mouse’s cage has plenty of food and water at all times. The second mouse has a maze in his cage, and he had to learn the maze to get to the food and water. And the third mouse? His cage had a thin wire like a tightrope ten feet over a large bucket of water between him and the food. Doesn’t sound quite fair, does it?
Well, they took brain scans of these mice, looking for dendrites, which turn out to be nerve endings, very important nerve endings, looking for other very important nerve endings, so that we may continue to do important things like walk, talk, solve problems, and continue to live our busy lives with a minimum of hassle. Especially as we grow older and need more time for diet, exercise, and meditation.
The first mouse that had everything in his cage did not grow any dendrites. The second mouse that had to learn the maze but soon did, grew some dendrites, but they didn’t connect. The third mouse, that had to navigate the high wire to get to the food and water, not only grew dendrites, but connected them to other dendrites.
Fascinating – but what does it all mean? I think Nick is telling us to take risks in life, even as we get older – maybe especially as we get older. But what kind of risks can we take if we’re in our 70s or 80s? I suspect it will be different for each of us. For me, I played and sang Beatles songs with my sons for the folks at Big Sur this year, despite being very average at both. But my terror at performing subsided after we got started, and the kind words of our audience later made it all worthwhile. And I definitely connected a dendrite or two.
In fact, it reminded me of something I read years ago when I was working at an office job during the day and organizing a food festival in my off time as a way to generate more income. These festivals took an enormous amount of my time, and not a few dollars from my daytime job and, in the end, they only broke even. But what I had read in the management newsletter said if you risked something, then did your best at it but still did not succeed, the end result would be an increase in your self-confidence. I found this contradictory idea to be true, and instead of worrying about doing another festival, I asked myself what else could I do that was risky, but with a good chance of reward? Hmm.
How about joining a writing group? . DW2026
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