How We Can Be Mindful

We were discussing Howard Gardner's fairly recent book in the C.F.S. Middle School staff room, and the question was asked: "What does Gardner mean by 'mind'?" The poem below is my attempt to answer that question.


Minds Within the Self


the force that through its organizing drives the principle
who drives the feeling
that drives the thought,

we are not such stuff as computers are made on
for while we do compute,
for while we do process,
we are also the programmer,
a programmer who shifts in self
to fit the shifts in what seems right to be, to do,

and we are such stuff as can be
born with ability,
learn to hone those abilities,
learn to expand understanding as we open to the other,
learn to create as we open to that mystery from somewhere outside us
who bubbles forth somehow from within us,
learn to appreciate and respect that which manifests in the other
and finally grow large enough in definition of self
to appreciate the connections across space and time
that hold us true

and give us back what can too easily be lost.

by Henry Walker
January 23, ‘09