I was young when I learned the distinction between a person’s brain and a person’s mind. The brain is a physical thing – a wet lump of cells wired together in order to produce the person’s mind, which is not a physical thing, at least, as far as we know.
Generating a mind is not, of course, the only thing that a brain does. (No examples needed here – come up with them on your own.) And I believe I read somewhere that the Ancient Greeks would point to their chest or gut when asked to locate the source of what we call “mind” – whatever kind of awareness that motivates our decisions and actions.
Clear enough, I suppose, but what, exactly, is a mind?
As an English major (long ago), I feel obliged to try to answer the question by looking at language. What do we actually say about what we call the “mind”? Common expressions that come to mind, off the top of my head (brain location), include:
· make up your mind
· change your mind
· narrow mindedness
· mind your manners
· mind your parents
· mindfulness
Let’s consider these one at a time.
I like the mandate to “make up your mind.” Your mind doesn’t just exist as a clear product of your brain. No, it’s something that you need to “make up” from time to time. This would seem to give you some sort of creative control over what your mind is, does and says. You can just make it up. I know the phrase usually applies to making a decision between alternatives you had been pondering, but I think there’s more to it than that.
This is consistent with “change your mind.” Don’t like what your mind is telling or showing you? Well – just change it. The implication behind “change your mind” suggests there are two alternatives, and you change from following one to following the other. But the creative opportunities are greater than that. Just change your mind! And if you don’t like the options, then just make up your mind – something totally new! Exchange your mind. And then, use it! As the United Negro College Fund warned us years ago, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
At the other end of the continuum is “narrow mindedness.” Maybe that means declining to consider other minds that you might live by – a failure to make up or change your mind. I confess that I usually use the term to apply to people who don’t agree with me, but there is more to it than that. It may be good, at times, to have your mind focus on a narrow subject or project, but narrow mindedness is usually seen as a disability because you don’t even consider alternative mind-sets.
All of these phrases see the “mind” as a more or less coherent way you process and interpret the wet turmoil going on inside your brain. Apparently, we need a clear and consistent view, though it’s encouraging that we can change it or even make it up. And sometimes that clear and consistent view comes from an outside source which you are expected to obey, as in “mind your parents,” which means to adopt their view of what you should do. “Mind your manners” suggests a similar obedience to an outside source: Exchange your mind – for theirs.
“Mindfulness,” as summarized by the mindless Artificial Intelligence on my computer, refers to “the practice of being present and fully aware of the current moment, without judgment.” To me this sounds a bit like mindlessness because you are surrendering your own mind to be absorbed and transformed by that current moment – living in the present tense. But maybe it’s more like changing your mind – escaping from whatever rut your mind has been stuck in and moving to a fresh new mind that is free from the stale demons that ruled your old self’s mind.
Which reminds me: Why do we say “on your mind” rather than “in your mind”?