Background. In 1921, William Bulter Yeats wrote “The Second Coming.” In his poem, Yeats comments on the unraveling of society during World War I. He states that “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” In this piece I combined the concept of “the centre cannot hold” with the results of the split-brain experiments. A central component of a society or culture fails yet it maintains function. The same idea applies to the brain. The corpus callosum can be severed and the brain maintains functions. The following piece tries to capture the anxiety, confusion, and frustration that occur when not all parts of the brain communicate. At the same time portraying how each part of the brain serves its function to give one a perception of life. “The Center of Life.” Chelsea S. Kang The center cannot hold. From left to right, and right to left the center cannot hold. It tears and breaks, and finally separates. The left controls the right, but the right controls the left. It’s a Corpus that communicates and makes our world seem so smooth, rather than so separate. Your heart rate ever so increasing while your breathing seems to slow. Medulla speaks to you. It says, “As long as I am here your heart of hearts and every breath you take will not fail you. I will not fail you even when the center cannot hold.” Still a cold fear consumes you. Anger pulls at the threadbare sheets of understanding looking for a reason. Amygdala gives rise to this fear, this anger that consumes you. The center cannot hold, but life continues on. The world begins to spin. But Cerebellum pulls you into balance it forces you to remember that every movement you make is still truly voluntary. It forces you to know that even when the center cannot hold not all control is lost. But at what cost of survival? This question stems from your mind but its Stem that sustains survival. It’s an automatic process that keeps these functions running. The center cannot hold, but life continues on. Life seems to be too much to take in. It’s overwhelming and uncontrolled. But your senses flood, all this information nonstop. Thalmus will not press pause. It drives the flow of messages that keep each sound, each figure, and each touch so real to you. The reality is the center cannot hold, but life continues on. A persistent sinking feeling, Emotion swells inside you. You cannot eat, you cannot drink, and the world has gone so cold, Hypothalmus gives rise to an ocean of emotion that pulls and pushes you further from the truth. The truth is the center cannot hold, but life continues on.
Time pulls backwards as you try to recover a memory for reassurance. You try to not take in the present but Hippocampus begins to bury the present deep into your memory. It stores the information no matter how badly you want to ignore it. The center cannot hold and you cannot ignore it‌ but life continues on. Occipital shows you the world as it falls before you. It sees the structures as they collapse now useless on the ground. They are gone forever. The center cannot hold, but life continues on. Temporal listens as each voice cries out in shock as the events unfold before them. It hears the pleas for mercy, the desperation. It hears the world as it tears into pieces. The center cannot hold, but life continues on. Sensory takes in the heavy ill air that seems to surround you. It feels each sting of pain as the world you once knew disappears before you. Nothing feels the same. The center cannot hole, but life continues on. You turn and run to try to escape everything. As if you may find an untouched place. Motor keeps you moving further and further away only to discover that the center cannot hold, but life continues on. Now away from the destruction you’re in a state of ecstasy. There are no boundaries to constrain; yet Parietal frantically searches for any association, any basic concept to grab onto. There is nothing, nothing at all. The center cannot hold, but life continues on. You cannot stay here. For ecstasy can only be a temporary escape. There must be a way to sort this out. To put the pieces back together, to fix this broken mess. Frontal takes each fragment of information and makes that final decision, the leap of faith that everything will be okay. The center cannot hold, but life continues on. Each day you grow and change. Pituitary aids you in this process. It doesn’t know that the world permanently separated. The only thing it knows is that you must continue to grow and develop if you are going to survive in this new unsettling world. The center cannot hold, but life continues on. Life continues on.