In a world suffocated by sameness, the last version of Sherlock Holmes by Guy Richie, starring the great Robert Downey Jr. (the one who did Shakespeare in Love) comes like fresh water in the desert.

The fascination our friend evokes is based on the Homos Sapiens Sapiens’ natural admiration feels before the excellence of his or her higher function: thinking.

Sherlock Holmes possesses an enormous amount of knowledge, but what makes him different, what turns him fantastic is not how much he knows but his ability to relate information, cross them one to another to build up the puzzle, which solves the case. He differs from the traditional scholar because Sherlock Holmes’ knowledge is alive – for his neurons are alive.

Neurons themselves don’t mean much if they are not interrelated. These relations are called synapses. And Sherlock Holmes has a lot of them; paths, highways, streets and avenues everywhere compose the brain of the most famous detective in history.

Ideally any of us can do the same, if we make the effort of THINKING. Thinking, like any exercise, is a work out, it requires a willingness to do it. But once the cerebral roads are opened, life acquires a magic unthinkable to the ones who never experienced it.

The secret consists on breaking, destroying, burning down all stereotypes. As the movie shows it, Sherlock Holmes is not a “normal” person. His life isn’t normal, without a case to solve he gets depressed, for he can’t stand banality.

Banal is everything is repetitively known and thus obvious. Unfortunately, triviality is also comfortable, for it takes away the strain of reflection, rethinking and understanding of reality. However, on the other side, banality numbs the brain. Stereotypes work as a cerebral anesthesia. There is no need of thinking when one follows a model. When relationships are given, the interpretation of life is given (nice or not it doesn’t really matter), when finally we are conformed and adapted everything becomes banal.

Many people like not to think, because thinking makes them discover nasty truths or face situations they don’t want or can’t give the deserved attention. Many people pretend they don’t think, and others are not really able to.

Whatever is the case, I believe that life is worth in the measure that we go through it dealing with each and everything it has to offer. As we move on we decipher and solve cases. This is living. We don’t need to like our cases. It’s not Sherlock Holmes who chooses his cases, they come to him. What is up to him and he does is getting his bottom up from the chair and following what life presents him.

Closing your eyes (and keeping your bottom on the couch in front of the TV) means shutting down several internal highways and lowering your neuronal connections. Choosing to avoid a clear sight of your situation leads to a mental injury. A shame for the Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Evolution that goes down the toilet.