I would have to say that one of the most strikingly bizarre words that we use in the English language is ‘Mind.’ For one cannot go a whole day, or at least it would seem, to witness the term used in a variety of forms. “Are you out of your mind?” Is one example that represents its noun form. While, “do you mind?” Demonstrates the verb form. And yet, I am still confused as to what the word ‘Mind’ means. Oh sure, dictionaries and etymological entries presumably provide ample definitions and origins of the word, but upon a less cursory inspection, one will find all of these unsatisfactory. When used in the first sense it conjures up an image of some 1950’s sci-fi film with bulbous headed humanoid aliens using their super cerebral powers to control the thoughts of their victims. In the latter sense, however, one is tempted to think of a Victorian gentleman, wearing white gloves and a top hat, in mid-conversation with an equally elegant audience of upper crust acquaintances saying something to the effect of “if you don’t mind my saying.” In short, the connotative meaning is no less enigmatic than the denotative one.

If we cannot agree on a clearer definition and usage of the term ‘mind’ why then do we evaluate the quality of it so frequently? With a preoccupation on IQ tests and academic achievement, we think that Mind, whatever it is or does, can somehow be assessed by quality and quantity. Some minds are ‘bigger’ than others, storing warehouses of information in them. Others are valued by their speed and agility; almost like a cheetah or falcon. The ‘more’ they can store, or the quicker they can access information, they better they are. Popular TV shows depict ‘brainy’ figures of mental superiority confounding the ‘average’ or ‘substandard’ mind with physics’ data and mathematical formulas with the effect that their minds are somehow better than others. And aside from the fact that we cannot ‘count’ the items in a mind, or stand next to the track where minds race and measure their quickness with a stopwatch, we are confident that we have some legitimate means of appraising minds.

And yet, all of this fails to address mind in the second sense- as in a verb. A towering intellectual will no doubt be proud of his or her capabilities. But what if others were to ‘mind’ the way he or she acted in public or in private? And even more, what of those that were ‘mindful’ of his or her misbehavior? Is it not possible that those renouncing the intellectual’s conduct be somehow his or her intellectual inferiors? Wouldn’t this present the puzzling dilemma of an inferior being at the same time one’s superior? After all, Heracles once fooled the great Atlas, possessing the intellect of a titan, into taking the burden of the world back as to adjust his garment. And Zeus’ infidelity was condemned for centuries by mortal men whose noggins could hardly contain an infinitesimal fraction of the knowledge of a god.

Here is a suggestion, and a humble one at that. I propose that we approach the term with the same sense of syntactic apathy as we do with terms like ‘Love’ or ‘Beauty.’ We always accept the more liberal interpretation of these words and their meaning, and so why can’t we do the same with ‘Mind?’ Certainly we could hold out for a definitive and precise sense of the term, but it would seem we would end up in a Platonic cave listening to lectures by a two-and-a-half-thousand-year-old echo of speeches by Socrates. For just as ‘Love’ is nothing more than the affection and passions we have which translate into personal commitments to others and Life matters themselves (and ‘Beauty’ being in the eye of the proverbial beholder), then I see no reason we cannot be content with what ‘Mind’ in general is considered: That which brings things to, and maintains for us, the knowledge we have -tacitly or otherwise- an immeasurable non-quantifiable knowledge only qualified by the conscious awareness of the reality surrounding a person. That is my opinion. That is, if you don’t mind my saying so.

Algernon Gedgrave is an author, educator and adventurer extraordinaire. Phoenix Fire Publishing are releasing two of his books this Spring -"The Winds that Stir," and "The Tear Drop”- while "Milton Riggles and the Exceptionally High Wall” will be released later this summer. For more information visit http://algernongedgrave.weebly.com/ and follow his blog at http://gelafold.blogspot.com/.