If You Could Read My Mind
If You Could Read My Mind? How do we read other people’s minds?
That of course is a good question. Maybe it’s about what they do or maybe it’s what they say. Too often people say and don’t do, but one thing for certain when someone tells you who they are we should believe them.
Still, reading my mind would generally be a ride that most people wouldn’t want to go on. Experts have described men’s minds to be like separate boxes. Kids in one box, wife in one box, friends, work, hobbies, all in separate boxes. Women on the other hand have minds like an interstate highway. Everything is related to everything else. Some days that’s a hard road to follow.
There are times when reading someone’s mind, we might think, would help us be more understanding, or at least to understand where someone else is thinking from. This may be true, but maybe not such a good idea. I know myself there are times I’ve let people talk, but even though I may have nodded my head to let them know I was following their words, weird things were running through my mind. Things like, that makes no sense, and/or that’s a strange idea, or that person is out of their blooming mind… And I’m pretty sure someone reading those thoughts would probably not be favorable.
In learning to ‘tell a story’ a writer also becomes a reader of minds. Thought patterns, motives, and just plain understanding people has to go with the territory.
Experts study to find out why people do what they do, yet human beings tend to be good at proving the experts wrong. I don’t know anyone who would say they had a perfect childhood. Yet from all sorts of backgrounds, people survive some going on to be great role models and some falling prey to poor decisions and end up in the dust bin of what not to do.
Many years ago I was talking to the secretary at a remedial school about a new thriller that was being released. She was so excited about this new work of fiction, and she really really liked this author and so forth. I don’t read thrillers. We live in the middle of nowhere and I have an imagination that doesn’t want to go there, but I told her I preferred some of the older works like Charles Dickens—Oh, she said, but this author had a movie or so made of some of his books…
Of course, Dickens has had so many of his books made into movies and plays for how many years? Over a hundred years I would guess. This brought to my mind Sydney Carton a character from a Tale of Two Cities. I would summarize Sydney as an alcoholic with a brilliant mind. However, like most brilliant minds there is a flaw that he must overcome in order to redeem his life.
We all have flaws—maybe one large gaping hole, or maybe many small deficiencies, but they must be worked on.
Luke 6:
44) For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.
45) A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
46) And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
