Saturday, September 20, 2008

A Beautiful Mind’s Focus – Ideas, Events, or People?

People are fascinating to watch. Whilst on my weekend bike ride recently I stopped at a favourite coastal lookout to do some push-ups and stretches. It was a beautiful day, with the odd wispy cloud, plenty of sunshine, the tweeting of birds, and the white noise of the waves, all to be taken in. But, I also noticed to my dismay the presence of broken glass littering the scene -- the obvious act of a hoon. Nevertheless, I continued to exercise wary of not getting cut.
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As I stood to rest at one point, three people, two women (mother and daughter/in-law) and a man, walked past along the ascending pavement toward the lookout point itself. As they walked I was sure they could tell of the glass there as it crunched under their shoed feet. Their response or lack thereof intrigued me; they didn’t seem to notice or attend to the glass -- I could tell they were too inspired by what they could take in from nature all about them; instead of looking down and experiencing consternation, they chose to look up and out to the beauty of the natural environment. I got to thinking that:
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“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.” –Eleanor Roosevelt.
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It was clear to me that these three were high-minded individuals or at least they were in a high-minded mood.
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There is so much beauty around in this world, yet there is also so much garbage and negative stuff. Those high-minded amongst us are set apart by the ideas and concepts that flood the mind rather than filling it with the events of the world and people we can talk about, and other ‘tasty’ (or tasteless) morsels.
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How majestic indeed is God who set the moon, planets, and stars in place, and then thought to invite mere humanity to the party, and to supervise no less![1] Why would we not be constantly mindful of the vast and spectacular beauty in this created world of ours? God shows off constantly every day. And it is our world, and our time. It's a good thing to look up and out and not so much down.
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Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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[1] See Psalm 8.

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