"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people."~Eleanor Roosevelt
This quote has stuck in my head ever since I heard it years and years ago. I love it and it’s so true. It also points out to me my own shortcomings. I guess I’d fall under the average category mostly, although I think there should be another category added. Sad minds discuss themselves. I have an entire blog devoted to supporting that theory. Why do I talk about myself? Am I really that self-centered?
I think it has much to do with the struggle for identity and validation. I think if it was changed to “secure minds” it would give it all new meaning. The lack of feeling secure enough to believe my ideas might be important is certainly a hindrance. I do have ideas, they just get lost under all the emotional baggage I carry with me everywhere I go. That stuff is always right there in front of everything and I’m constantly struggling with it so, heh, I talk about it. My God that must get boring for people!
I have met many very inspiring great minds in my lifetime. I’d say it gives me something to strive for. I’ll just add that to all my other things I struggle with. Oh but wait, there I am being a sad mind again, when what I really want to talk about are great minds. Like the uplifted feeling I get whenever I go to Barb’s blog and read her new posts without a hint of the angst that is in mine. She talks about the overall goodness in life and it seems like another world to me, but one I would love to join. She shares and includes us in every post. So seriously folks, if you want good art, good conversation and a sense of having spent time with a wonderful friend get thee over to Over Coffee… you won’t regret it. 
Once you get there read her post and follow that one over to Teacher Time to meet another inspiring and compassionate great mind. What great minds have you met in your life? I hope it’s been many and varied.
Someday maybe I’ll be amongst the great minds that so enrich this world. I really hope so. Shoo now…go read and enjoy!
I love that image above – I can see a face in it – with lots of stuff flying around her head. A projection, most likely but doesn’t matter, does it?
That’s what I love about abstracts, I see all kinds of things
A wonderful post, Sliloh. You get to the point without seeming to be of sad mind — rather, of curious mind. You hunt the why’s of your own life and share them, but never (as far as I’ve seen) morbidly. There’re lessons in your searches, and while the why’s haven’t yet been made clear, you continue to do — and become — more. You look for the upsides in your downturns. (I would not call you average…)
I love your abstract. I see Wind — and remember a very old story written by George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind. (In pursuit of the knowledge and wisdom living there.) Appropriate to this post, I think.:)
I wish this had shown up as a pingback; I might have missed it. Thank you for the link.
Thank you Barb. You are the most accepting and encouraging person
And now I see a face in the wind!
I see psychic pneuma
lol, you’ve been doing your reading
[...] challenges us and inspires us to recognize our own interactions. Sliloh presents Are you a great mind? posted at Sliloh’s Rambles, saying, “Great minds discuss ideas…..and ideals too I [...]