conditioning

and I'm not talking about hair.

if you've ever read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, you have an idea of what kind of conditioning I mean.
repeating phrases while children are sleeping, so that they will learn an automatic response.

this has happened to me, though not to such an extreme.

"bright lights, fast cars."


I don't know where he got it, but my dad says this all the time.

now, any time anyone says "bright lights," my immediate response is "fast cars."
it's ridiculous, but I love it.

I noticed a similar situation last week during chapel. David Cramer was reading a verse that contained the word manifold. the next word he said was witness. the word in the verse was actually wisdom.

I sat there smirking, because I completely understand. the phrase "manifold witness" is from the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness." how often to people use the word manifold in everyday life? I'm pretty sure I've only used that word in the song. the natural continuation of the phrase will probably always be witness.


think about natural responses you have to certain phrases.
do you know where they came from?