by Valerie Libutti

Created on: November 23, 2008   Last Updated: February 04, 2009

The essence of beautiful mind is found in it's potential to be beautiful. By itself, the mind is an awesome tool. Encompassing the Id, which houses the most basic and primal instincts and drives; the ego, that houses our sense of self, and; the super ego, which houses our conscience, the mind's mechanisms are genius. It's a traffic cop, it's a messenger, it's the keeper of our senses our equilibrium, it vaults some of memories and sorts for quick retrieval others. The mind knows which ones goes where. It's amazing and the best technology has not been able to duplicate the human mind. But it is virtually full of space waiting to be filled at our onset.

I believe we come in to this world with a fairly though not completely blank slate. Something like a computer programmed to receive. And receive we do. From the moment we cross the threshold of our mother's womb we soak up information like a sponge. I suspect we start taking in data even before we see or feel the light from the darkness we had previously known. Our prospects for peace and beauty present the ever standing question, nature verses nurture.

Are we a product of genetics or are we the product of our environment? I suspect we are the product of both. The odds are against two violinists, for example, producing a huge wrestler. But, I suppose it could happen. They could also produce a murderer or a Nobel prize winning peacenik. I am sure there is no correlation between playing the violin and violent tendencies any more then there is likely a correlation between playing the violin and being an Einstein. The mind is part of life's mystique.

I believe the most depraved tormented minds may be capable of moments of beauty. Conversely, the most beautiful minds are capable of having ugly thoughts, however rarely. I think the mind itself is neutral in areas of beauty and ugliness. It's what is done with the mind that determines either of those classifications. Beauty or ugliness good or evil, in my view, these realities come from attaching meaning to things, experiences and events. That meaning contributes to perceptions and perceptions become our reality. That reality is seldom the same for two people in similar scenarios. It could never be the same for everyone. Everyone does not attach the same meaning to things, events and experiences. In addition we do not all have the same experiences. Yet, the mind works for all of us, albeit in varying degrees.

The mind is a complex and wonderous thing. To the degree that it is beautiful or ugly lies only in it's potential to be either or both.

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