THE MEETING OF MINDS

    Eleanor Roosevelt once said that great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and mediocre minds discuss people. 

I have had countless conversations with people from all generations, across many cultures and Eleanor’s sage insight into human conversation is surprisingly accurate.

We all understand how the model works. Discussing people usually centres on who they are, what they do, wear or say, who they hang out with and so on. Generally such discussions are used to mindlessly pass the time or to elevate oneself on the social ladder at the expense of others. No wonder Eleanor Roosevelt labelled this level of discussion as being mediocre!

Next we come to average minds who discuss events. Now there is nothing wrong with discussing sport or politics, world events or the weather. After all such topics often lead to some quite lively discussions, however more often than not event based conversations end up being as changeable as, well, the weather and depending on the dynamic of the group, average conversations will rarely spark ideas. Average conversations will more often than not degrade to become just another mediocre discussion revolving around the people who are involved in the events.

This leaves us with great minds. Great minds will centre their conversation on exploring ideas and concepts. Language such as “What if?”, “I wonder why?” or “I have been thinking….”  pepper their conversations thereby opening up some fascinating discussions that catapult people into the realm of possibility.

Today was your average Friday and Eleanor’s words were far from my mind. Driving home in the drizzling rain whilst listening discussion on the radio, my attention was suddenly arrested by a random thought “That’s how people have conversations with me.”  

Instantly recognising the origin of the thought, the radio was silenced and with the sound of a wet road beneath me being punctuated by the intermittent swipe of the windscreen wipers, I waited for the next revelation.  

Snippets of conversation flowed.  Agnes is so negative… Horace behaves appallingly…. I can’t believe that so and so did, said, thinks etc. I’m so worried about … I’m so upset because… You have to do something about the environment, the politicians, the economy and so on. There was plenty of waffle coming from the mediocre and average categories but very few great minded snippets of conversation.

Of all the countless conversations  I have had, it is the ones where ideas were discussed, concepts were explored, ah ha moments were sparked and revelation was inspired that have left an indelible mark, engendered tremendous growth and  ignited  a thirst and a hunger to understand more of things that are not just temporal but have eternal value. Such conversations flow easily, are often filled with laughter as well as camaraderie and generally leave one feeling energised, loved, valued and esteemed.

In that brief moment, I realised that our Heavenly Father longs for the great mind He gave us all to rise up and begin a great minded conversation with Him.