I had a few chores to knock out over lunch today. As I was out and about I noticed a car parked along a street I was walking on. On the side of the car was a graphic of the company in whose service the car was dedicated. The name of the company was "Holy Health Care". No sooner did I read this name then my mind immediately added the word "Batman". I chuckled.
I since looked up the website - http://www.holyhealthcare.in/ - to see what they are about. Of course this is a serious business with an important mission. Then why did I feel compelled to change their name in my head to a tagline from an old TV series, "Holy Health Care, Batman!"?
It makes me think about how much our individual experience within the culture we grow up in influences our perspective. I'm sure there are plenty of people who are older than me such that they paid no attention to the old Batman show. They would never have thought of that line. Just as likely there are plenty of people who link the word Batman with the franchise of movies that have been released over the past decades. None of those movies had Robin using the phrase. If younger people were not exposed to the old TV show, they also would not have made the leap I did.
Another example of this issue would be in the culture of baseball fans. There is a joke in baseball that the last two words in the national anthem are "Play Ball!" Outside of attending a baseball game, at the end of hearing the Star Spangled Banner I sometimes jokingly utter that phrase to see if it brings a chuckle. It usually doesn't, except when I'm actually in a ball park with other baseball fans.
Perhaps having a phrase "stuck" in one's head is a function of how often the person has been exposed to the idea. If we are in a certain culture, we hear certain phrases more often, and perhaps use them often enough ourselves. The result, like any habit, is to strengthen neural passages in the brain (synapses) which strengthen the association we have with the phrase. The more we are exposed, the more we associate the pattern.
I since looked up the website - http://www.holyhealthcare.in/ - to see what they are about. Of course this is a serious business with an important mission. Then why did I feel compelled to change their name in my head to a tagline from an old TV series, "Holy Health Care, Batman!"?
It makes me think about how much our individual experience within the culture we grow up in influences our perspective. I'm sure there are plenty of people who are older than me such that they paid no attention to the old Batman show. They would never have thought of that line. Just as likely there are plenty of people who link the word Batman with the franchise of movies that have been released over the past decades. None of those movies had Robin using the phrase. If younger people were not exposed to the old TV show, they also would not have made the leap I did.
Another example of this issue would be in the culture of baseball fans. There is a joke in baseball that the last two words in the national anthem are "Play Ball!" Outside of attending a baseball game, at the end of hearing the Star Spangled Banner I sometimes jokingly utter that phrase to see if it brings a chuckle. It usually doesn't, except when I'm actually in a ball park with other baseball fans.
Perhaps having a phrase "stuck" in one's head is a function of how often the person has been exposed to the idea. If we are in a certain culture, we hear certain phrases more often, and perhaps use them often enough ourselves. The result, like any habit, is to strengthen neural passages in the brain (synapses) which strengthen the association we have with the phrase. The more we are exposed, the more we associate the pattern.
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