129th Edition
Mind Control
Someday I’d like to master total mind control. The idea first came to me while watching one of my all-time favorite movies, a relatively unknown drama starring James Stewart, as Marsh “Carbine” Williams, a bootlegger who is convicted of manslaughter in the death of a federal agent during a shootout. A hard-nosed judge sentenced him to twenty years in prison. During the first years in prison, he stubbornly battles an equally stubborn warden, who put him in solitary confinement in a claustrophobic cell which the lanky Williams could barely fit into. In relatively short order, to cope with his dire circumstances, he learns mind control. He learns to block out every painful or frightening thought and focuses entirely on thoughts that were pleasing and comforting. For him it was envisioning how to make an automatic rifle, hence the name of the movie, “Carbine Williams.” Impressive and inspiring mind control.
I wish I had that ability. I really wish I had that ability right now, as I am writing this blog crammed in the middle seat of row twelve on a four and a half-hour flight from Atlanta to Seattle. Mind control is my only hope of making this unbearable situation tolerable.
What would life be like if we had total mind control? I mastered it once, for about twenty minutes, in order to endure being rolled into a claustrophobic tube during an MRI exam. I shut my eyes, imagined I was competing in the first day of a decathlon… First event, the 100M dash. Runners to your marks… Set… Bang goes the gun. By the time I had envisioned finishing the fifth and final event of the first day of the decathlon, the 400M, the MRI was complete, and I was free from the tube. Piece of cake with mind control.
What else in life that we refuse to put up with could we tolerate, if we had total mind control? How much could we lower our overall stress level if we could rely on it whenever we needed to? In traffic, waiting in line, or heading to the doctor’s office to learn the results of a recent biopsy. What comfort could mind control provide in those circumstances?
Finding proper perspective might play a role in all this. Before I slumped into the middle seat, before two full-size strangers sat on either side of me, before I started to stress out and wonder how I was going to handle a four-and-a-half-hour flight, and yes, before I thought about writing a blog about mind control, I was in the waiting area trying to console a very distraught elderly man who shared with us that he recently lost his son, who died unexpectedly. I was concerned about having space and a comfortable seat on a plane, and he was heartbroken about losing a son. Perhaps perspective is the catalyst for mind control. Is it true that no matter what challenge or setback we might face, someone has it worse? I asked myself that question as I read this paragraph in a book during my introspective plane ride…
“I’ve had operations on both knees, I’ve pulled muscles in my thighs, I’ve broken my foot, once I hurt my shoulder so badly that I had trouble throwing – and I’ve really worried about these things. But I’ll tell you the truth, your own worries seem like nothing when you think of the things that other people have been bothered with.” (Mickey Mantle in “The Quality of Courage.”). If Mantle is right, then we have within us the perspective that might spark a mental refocusing. Mind control.
Mind control is definitely counter-cultural. We are constantly being bombarded with the message that we are entitled to have everything we need and desire. But as we journey through life we are exposed to its frailty. We experience the randomness of both fortune and misfortune. With age and perhaps a bit of wisdom we accept the fact that we control less than we once thought we did. Live long enough and most of us will experience pain and disappointment of some kind. Ever wonder why some people seem to handle difficult situations better than others? Perhaps they have learned proper perspective and have a mechanism for invoking mind control.
There is a faith component to all this, too. Faith, for many, provides the proper perspective. God is in control, not us. Moreover, God is gracious and loving, and his son died for our sins. Focus entirely on those truths and it changes everything in a profound way. I can attest to this transformative process firsthand. But spirituality can be fleeting. A return to this spiritual perspective requires mind control.
Three hours to go… the most uncomfortable seats ever made are on airplanes. I mean this particular airplane. Seat 12E, specifically. My butt is already killing me. Time for mind control.
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Michael Kayes
*These views are my personal opinions and are not the viewpoints of any company or organization.