Our Mind

Our Mind

They say that a mind is a terrible thing to lose,

But I didn’t realize that endured such horrible abuse.

I didn’t like anything that altered my mind,

That’s why I wouldn’t drink alcohol: whiskey or wine—

Nor would you see me shooting up drugs,
After all, aren’t they just artificial mental hugs?

Momentarily satisfying, chasing that high,

After the crash, withdrawals tear-streak the eyes

The cycles need breaking, when to our addictions we crawl

Perhaps our lives are needing a major overhaul.

But can’t you see what damages us most—

Isn’t hiding the skeletons, or kicking our ghosts

It’s the little things that we do, that damages our mind,

Those compromises we make, when lies intertwine.

From the broken circles trust, of family and friends,

Only to tell them repeatedly, “I’ll never do it again.”

But if we gaze much deeper, closer we’ll find

That the thing we’ve hurt most, is our precious mind.

Stripping layer by layer, we become a nonentity,

In perverting the truth, we lose our identity.

Screaming inwardly, “What have I become!”

When it all falls apart, and our lives are undone.

Is it possible to change, by redirecting our gaze?

To peer behind the murkiness of this everyday haze.

And that inward satisfaction of healing our mind,

Only by looking upward, will salvation we’ll find.

Greg Butz

June 11^th, 2009

I did some thinking (pondering my internal philosophy while showering) and a few ideas popped into my mind. I was thinking in this simple rhyme schema, putting it to words was fun. I know rhyming “drugs” with “artificial mental hugs” seems like I’m reaching for a rhyme, but I do really like the imagery… its what originally popped into my mind to begin with. Anyway, the point of this is that we can physically damage our mind by abusing it with controlling substances, but mentally we can damage it by constructing false schemas and filling it with lies, negative thoughts, and moral compromises.