The Briar Philosopher - Satisfied Mind

I’m sure there are some who read my column who will remember some of the old songs that were rolling around in my head over the weekend. The Boy and I had decided to do a little Fall Cleaning around the house. I’m not much for Spring cleaning, as I hit the door as soon as the temperatures allow, but come Autumn, I start seeing all the dirt in corners and clutter here and there, and I just can’t stand the thought of being trapped in the house on a cold winter’s day with all that mess. So, we got a start at it, and as I cleaned, I started singing songs that my mother would often sing when she was about one task or another. I sang everything from Satisfied Mind to Tramp on the Street to Mockingbird Hill but it was Satisfied Mind that my thoughts kept coming back to, and I knew it would be the topic of this week’s Briar. Here’s a little bit of the lyrics: 

“Money can't buy back your youth when you're old

Or a friend when you're lonely, or a love that's grown cold

The wealthiest person is a pauper at times compared to the man with a satisfied mind

When life has ended and my time has run out

My friends and my loved ones, I'll leave, there's no doubt

But there's one thing for certain when it comes to my time

I'll leave this old world with a satisfied mind.” 

Those lyrics got me to wondering how many people actually do leave this old world with a satisfied mind, and do I count myself among that number? After giving it some thought, I realized that I do count myself among those who will leave this old world with a satisfied mind. 

I’ve never had much in the way of worldly wealth, and I’m fine with that. I’ve also never given anyone my respect for no other reason than that they have a lot of money. In my experience, folks who have an obscene amount of money usually got a bunch of it by climbing on someone else’s back. I’ve made mistakes and hopefully learned from them. I’ve put too much stock in people sometimes and not enough other times. I’ve always tried my best to do my best for my fellow man. I’m not one to cheat or lie or steal or covet. I’m not a glutton, a gambler, a backstabber, nor am I overly proud of any of those things. Those are just the things I learned growing up; the things one should aspire to just to be a worthwhile human being.  Some of those things I learned from my mother, my school, and the churches I attended. Some of them I learned from songs like Satisfied Mind and Tramp on the Street. Those songs talked about what was really important and what was not. They were the kind of songs that said something about matters more important than trucks and chicks and getting your kicks. At the very least, they were important enough to the development of my sense of ethics and morals that I remember them to this very day well enough to sing them in full.

The things that I have sought in this world over the last 60-some years have been things like empathy, understanding my life and the lives of those around me, and understanding why things like empathy and understanding are important. I’ve studied the human story as far back as there is any kind of information about it that exists; way back to fossils, stone tools,  footprints, and not much else to go on. I’ve come to know and understand a great deal about us and how we came to be the way we are today. That understanding has led to satisfaction, as it is often a failure to understand that leads to confusion, fear, and doubt. We, as humans, have both a glorious and a horrendous past. We have done great good and caused great harm. We have discovered much and lost our very humanity from time to time to greed and avarice, hatred and destruction. We, as humans, were a quandary to me for most of my life, something that puzzled, amazed, and disappointed me in turn. It was coming to understand how we could be so “two-faced” (more faced than that, really) that allowed me to see us in our true light. We are magnificent and messed up. We’ve lost our way and found a dozen paths to destruction. We’ve created great things and destroyed even greater things. 

Part of our problem is that we’re short-sighted in both directions. We don’t look far enough back into our past to understand who and what we are or how we came to be this way, and we don’t look far enough into the future to take into account the effects our current choices and actions will have on future generations. In searching the story of us, I have come to love us more and have more compassion for some of the decisions we have made that may not have been for the best. 

All of those things have been instrumental in my being able to say that I do, indeed, have a satisfied mind. 

I’m going to leave you this week with a few of the lyrics from Tramp on the Street. May we all learn to love again with a depth and a reach that touches all our human brothers and sisters. 

“Jesus, who died on Calvary's tree

He shed his life's blood for you and for me

They pierced his sides, his hands, and his feet

Then they left him to die like a tramp on the street

He was Mary's own darling; he was God's chosen son

Once he was fair and once he was young

Mary, she rocked him, her darling, to sleep

But they left him to die like a tramp on the street

If Jesus should come and knock on your door

For a place to come in or bread from your store

Would you welcome him in or turn him away

Then God would deny you on the great judgment day.”