The Blackberry Walk

Will be starting short form dark-side articles for smaller thoughts. Over time, through a variety of experiences, I've come to realise the mantle of the mind is images. If we imagine the mind much like the layers of the Earth, the images of the mind rest in its mantle, that slow, viscous solid magma, flowing slowly beneath the crust. By volume and by weight, the magma exceeds the crust, and the images of the mind are no different; images underpin our likes and dislikes, our persuasions, our current feelings. But like magma again, these images can move, can morph, and change into new forms, be replaced by other images, can cause plate tectonics in the conscious mind above, and at times erupt into consciousness like a volcano. When one introspects and allows the images to arise, one can see the root to a feeling, an emotion. Some emotions, I suspect, cannot be experienced unless the associated image arises. One such image that I've been thinking about lately is such: some time ago, I watched a YouTube video on Mount Athos, where a thin monk was cutting through a rustic boule of bread. Now, whenever I feel full and wish for a less rich diet, whether that be food or any other aspect of life, this epitome of the ascetic life is projected in my mind's theatre. Before this image, the ascetic life didn't have the same beauty, it didn't have the same lustre. Man believes himself rational, and I too believe man can be rational. But our rationality, I believe, is preceded by our sense of beauty. The images of our mind and their beauty determine to what extent we agree with an idea. If the image can be painted in the mind of Red party supporters that Blue party supporters are allied with perverts, then a rational argument for the Blue party will be without power to convince: the image has been tarred. No amount of persuasion and argument can convince you of something which isn't cool. To seem beautiful, not merely in how a movement idea is dressed, but in how it acts also, is enough to convince someone of its truth, and will make them desire to be a part of the movement. The food porn online of delicious rich foods excites the tongue, these images affect us. But if the image of the monk slicing bread is more beautiful still, that image of asceticism might turn you away from a greasy snack. What is the case for food, may also be the case for life's other lusts and desires: we can be made holy through images and their healing power. A sick mind is made sick on a diet of sick images. We are what we eat. To return to health is to submit our mind to healthy images, and overthrow the rotten sulphurous images we once had with a new regime of virtuous images. Our minds are images in their mantle; at their core, heavens knows what we are. But hopefully, God willing, we can nurture a greater appreciation and reflection of the images that we feed our minds and receive from our minds, and hence not allow ourselves become corrupt by them.