A proverb in the Bible’s book of Proverbs says effectively, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” Our body is made up of many parts, which are all controlled by our brains. All creatures have a brain which unconsciously controls their life functions.

What about our our minds, our super brains? The human mind is defined by Webster as the thinking and perceiving part of consciousness. We humans seem to have a superior mind, doing much more than just controlling our body. Other creatures who do little reasoning seem to have only a brain, with very little of a reasoning mind. Our minds seem to have an unlimited potential, by which we can understand the universe, the world, our lives, its manifestations of reality, and what it all means.

Going back even before Jesus, there were many people who gained insights beyond the popular thoughts of the day. Plato and Aristotle, Galileo, and in the modern world, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thomas Edison to name only a few.

It seems obvious that the people who have contributed the most to the basic advancements of humanity were not politicians. The politicians have been the most diligent in keeping the general population under their control, rather than helping them advance. Our greatest gain in the discovery of America, was a land distant enough from established European politicians, to allow the people to set up their own system of government, free from the political ambitions of Europe.

The best hope for humanity today is for people to maintain control of the politicians in our midst. John Q. Public will be best served by keeping the politician in his place, regardless of how they see things. Politicians become our governors, but they can not be our Gods.

I quote James Allen who published an essay in 1903 titled “As a man thinketh,” he said, “Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect are as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the divine perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.”

We are each responsible for ourselves. We each live our own lives. No one else can live our life for us. We alone decide what we believe, and live our lives accordingly. Our problems are ours to overcome. Our lives depend more than anything, on our ability to understand ourselves.

None of us have a divine right to stand above our fellow man. Contrary to popular opinion, controlling others is not success, but only appears so. Learning to live in harmony, and enjoy life with others is life’s true reward. Humility is in the realization of the majesty of creation, and more productive than controlling people. We cannot salivate over Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth, without suffering a degree of the resulting harvest these things bring.

We think that our minds are our own, and I suppose they truly are. But we also seem to miss the mark that, the way we use our minds has more consequences than we realize. Our minds are in fact our very lives. We can change them, but we, and we alone, are responsible for our own life. We all know, and cannot deny, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” May God bless America.

Richard Westland is a Collins resident. Comments may be sent to editorial@observertoday.com