The reader might immediately connect this to the more popular phrase and 1950's western TV series "Have Gun Will Travel' (starring Richard Boone). Actually the phrase, "Have X will Y" was likely the generic origin ascribed to a lot of things in early 1900 idiomatic expressions. It was more likely about "having the necessary tool and willingness to travel to do a job, for example". But "Have Mind will Travel" does make sense today in the midst of the quarantine and lock down that had become necessary for a lot of us.
Many of you who would rather see the glass as half full may already have found ways to make the most of the current situation. Aside from binge watching favorite TV shows or engaging in total Facebook immersions or perhaps committing to picking up the once forgotten hobby or just simply starting one, there is one that costs the least in resources. Engaging the mind and have it travel can be that antidote to quarantine fatigue.
The mind is one powerful tool. Alas, we often take it for granted. Often it is neglected. In fact, the mind could easily shift to the lowest gear, or worse, disengages to idling once the TV is on or when we get ourselves into a mindless routine of thoughtless ruminations, to the rhythm equivalent of doodling during a boring staff meeting. What are we to do in times like these?
First, count yourself blessed if when this is over, you can walk, you can drive, you can go to a lot of places and very much do whatever pleases you. But think. Before this all started there were already countless folks who had been going through worse. In nursing homes there were already thousands upon thousands of souls locked down to the confines of limited living spaces and restricted physical activities. Before this, wheelchair bound folks and those living at home but too old to do certain tasks because of one physical deficiency or another have been going through what we are politely admonished to do - "shelter in place".
We can learn from some of these folks. It was found in some studies that folks described in the previous paragraph who do well despite the physical limitations are those who never stopped to "travel". They don't mope, complain or feel bitter. Instead, all along they knew how to let their minds go on a journey. They've realized that physical barriers to travel were no match to the leaps and bounds the mind can and will do, if allowed to step out of the finite into the infinite expanses of the mental universe. Sometimes these travels are short treks down memory lane or far into deeper pondering but never about "what could have been" or "what ifs" and certainly not about regrets or second thoughts. They do very well even if they embellish the trips as time goes on. That reminds me of the phrase, "History of the war is written by the victors". Well, these folks, if they got to that point in their lives are already victors of many wars, in a way. They survived every ailment thrown at them including the ravages of time and old age. So at that point when they let their mind travel, they can write whatever history or story they want. And not necessarily for those listening because often there is no one there to talk to but for their own inner happiness as they step into the journey with their minds - the best travel companions ever. These are the people who do well.
The ultimate traveler is the mind. It can go forward, backward and sideways in time and the entire breadth of the universe. Anyone willing to try can do that. At the least amount of time and money. Indeed, it does not cost anything and time is either compressible or expandable, short or prolonged. Such is "Have Mind Will Travel".
There is only so much time one can spend at the work shop or whatever activity one is engaged in. There is only so much to do with TV or computer time and the internet. Well, there is that mental journey. Like in the H.G. Wells novel, "The Time Machine", one may set the time to whenever. But unlike in the novel, where the machine sits at just one place, one may set the wherever to travel to. We can talk about whenever and wherever in the future later.
Not too long ago, for example, while watching a concert on You Tube I wondered when I started to appreciate classical music. I ask that because I was not brought up where classical music was part of growing up as a child. We didn't have a record player and I was in high school already before we had a radio. That was just shortly after we had electricity in the house. In fact, by the time our house had a phone, I was away in college. I don't remember when our parents had their first refrigerator but it must have been while I was already away on my own.
The college was at the other side of the island. Extracurricular activities included participating in college student government. One day those actively involved in the student government, which I was, were invited by one of the college benefactors. He was a very rich landowner of a huge sugar cane plantation just outside the city. When the group arrived at his home, we were brought to a place that was not his main residence. We walked to the middle of this sugar cane field where stood a structure. That was his sanctuary away from the house and we were privileged guests there where lunch was going to be brought in. It was a 4-cornered open structure with wide flow-through windows, well insulated roofing and hardwood floors. In one corner was his prized stereo system. This was pre-CD or Blue Tooth but he had the top of the line reel-to-reel tape player and the best amplifier money can buy. He had speakers the size of a standard refrigerator strategically spaced to the sides. That was a his beloved possession we can tell. And he knew too we were all curious how it sounded. At that time my music interests were Elvis Presley and the up and coming Beatles, like most everyone my age.
Then he turned it on. That was my first exposure to a kind of music I never knew existed that transformed a part of my music experience. Don't get me wrong I still listen to regular popular music today. But that afternoon, from those refrigerator-size speakers I heard what today is considered the most dramatic opening of any piano composition - Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. That is still fresh in my memory like it was yesterday. Months later, at the university gymnasium (of all places) came a visiting musician. He was an internationally acclaimed violinist. The university did not yet have a concert hall, so the gymnasium was the best venue we had. By that time my interest piqued so I went. The violinist played, "Meditation from Thais". The gym was solemnly quiet as soon as he played the first few notes and remained still throughout the piece. I don't think the gym had ever been so quiet before and since then. Those two musical pieces stayed with me. You Tube has so many versions of both. Check them out when you have time. Look up the ones performed by Anna Fedorova or Khatia Buniatishvili - for better audio/video reproduction of the piano concerto. Others though performed by much renowned artists were poorly recorded.
Mr. Teves, the wealthy landowner who at that time was already advancing in years still looked to me today as that gentleman with his white thinning hair that matched his starched white linen shirt and equally white cotton slacks welcoming us to that sanctuary in the middle of hectares upon hectares of sugar cane. If he was in one of many afternoons there, we were told, he would turn up the volume where the only other audience stood still, but pliant to the breeze - undulating sea of green. And there Mr. Teves must have imagined himself as if he were in Section A, Row H, Seat 28, which is the ideal place to listen if one were in a concert hall somewhere in Moscow, Kiev or Vienna. And I cannot forget the landowner's generosity to have opened that door to a bunch of college students, one of whom had taken a piece of that memory with him, to this day.
Mr. Teves, the wealthy landowner who at that time was already advancing in years still looked to me today as that gentleman with his white thinning hair that matched his starched white linen shirt and equally white cotton slacks welcoming us to that sanctuary in the middle of hectares upon hectares of sugar cane. If he was in one of many afternoons there, we were told, he would turn up the volume where the only other audience stood still, but pliant to the breeze - undulating sea of green. And there Mr. Teves must have imagined himself as if he were in Section A, Row H, Seat 28, which is the ideal place to listen if one were in a concert hall somewhere in Moscow, Kiev or Vienna. And I cannot forget the landowner's generosity to have opened that door to a bunch of college students, one of whom had taken a piece of that memory with him, to this day.
In that short vignette which my mind takes me to from time to time reminds me most of all the time of growing up very poor when what we ate from day to day would go from meager to adequate but hardly one close to even a fraction of sumptuous. That journey back in time shows how powerful the mind is and how quickly it puts me in place every time I feel way too comfortable with where I am today . It will take you back to wherever and whenever you want to go but the mind could be unforgiving at poking you with bits of reminders.
Today, the one silver lining is discovering from all the technology tools available to us that can help even the most disabled among us. Before all of these I considered You Tube as just one of those video wonders that I would consult to find out how to replace a broken laptop glass screen or how to diagnose what's wrong with appliances around the house or how to remove and replace a car part. Now, I found out there is more to it than watching magic tricks or the latest in the gizmo world.
Before going any further, I set aside, like in a lot of things today, the bad, the ugly or the politics and censoring or controlling of information on all media vehicles because there are a lot more benefits, especially to those no longer able to physically move around.
Before going any further, I set aside, like in a lot of things today, the bad, the ugly or the politics and censoring or controlling of information on all media vehicles because there are a lot more benefits, especially to those no longer able to physically move around.
An aging resident, even living alone, can now suddenly transport himself or herself to that part of the world they can no longer go to or watch what other people do with their time in pursuit of a hobby or livelihood. There, one may see Grandpa Amu make stuff from wood and other materials with the most rudimentary tools. Or, see how people find and cook their food. It's all there. I call You Tube the audio-visual version of Google or Wikipedia. Of course, it can also be as mind numbing as television or hopelessly tiring as Facebook but again, if one so chooses, it is eye-opening and mind boggling in scope when we consider what we can see and discover with a few thumb movements on the remote or voice command.
Let me give a couple of examples where one's mind may step into places never once envisioned possible. Yes, we can do a lot of imagining but there is nothing like listening to a lecture being conducted right at the very same place where Michael Farady, the 18th century phenom who, with little formal education, shook the world with his work on electromagnetism. The table on which he did practical demonstrations of what was then new scientific knowledge is still there, except that now a theoretical physicist named David Tong was speaking about quantum field theory. That is amazing because as a viewer/listener you are right there in front row. The place is at Cambridge University, England - the seat of many scientific discoveries. That whole place was one day in my living room and for an hour or so I was mesmerized by that presentation which would have been impossible to experience, short of taking a trip, let alone get a ticket to enter that lecture hall.
Next, I was sitting in front of a math teacher in a regular classroom. Here is what was fascinating about what he was talking about. He was expounding on what is zero raised to the power of zero. I beg your pardon if I go nerdy on the reader here. When I was in college at about the same time many of the baby boomers were, that was a big no-no, a total non-subject or if brought up only meant ignorance of the basic math. Well, in the age of modern pocket calculators, the lecturer just showed his audience that not only is zero raised to the power of zero worth discussing, it was revolutionary. At least, to me anyway. I will not spoil it but if you have a scientific calculator, or use one online, try first .2 raised to the power of .2, then keep lowering the number to several decimal points, as much as your calculator will allow. It reminded me of a favorite - a circle is nothing more than a polygon with an infinite number of sides. True, and it is one of the examples of how or why calculus works. Or, at least a great demonstration of so called limits in mathematical terms.
Speaking of limits, the worst mistake we can make is limit the extent by which our minds can travel. And the most important part is that we can do this regardless of our chronological age. If only we dare to let it go.
Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger were both accomplished and famous physicists but they too let their minds travel despite the extent of their knowledge. Actually, what they were good at was do experiments within their own mind. And just as well because what they conducted were actually beyond what their physical laboratories can do at that time nor was there the equipment or tools they could use to do it. As it turned out many of their so called thought experiments were supported by actual observations or by modern tools decades later.
So, not only should we not despair but be thankful that we are alive at a time such as now because our mental travel is now unlimited as never before. 'Ol Albert and inquisitive Erwin, what they knew then now pales in comparison to what the average B+ physics major knows or has in his or her finger tips to look at and understand.
And I leave you with this. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan without ever stepping foot in Africa. Of course, he also wrote science fiction about Mars. Naturally, we must mention too that Jules Verne and H.G. Wells wrote about far out subjects never even dreamed of by the learned scientists and inventors of their time. All three are just examples of many others who were inveterate mental travelers. And there was George Orwell who wrote in the 1940's a story that he imagined would happen two decades afterwards but he over estimated. "1984" was not going to occur until over three decades later than that predicted date. We are in it today.
Still despite all of that here we are and seeing the glass as half full we can be grateful that technology is not to be feared but to be used to "Have Mind Will Travel".
Let me give a couple of examples where one's mind may step into places never once envisioned possible. Yes, we can do a lot of imagining but there is nothing like listening to a lecture being conducted right at the very same place where Michael Farady, the 18th century phenom who, with little formal education, shook the world with his work on electromagnetism. The table on which he did practical demonstrations of what was then new scientific knowledge is still there, except that now a theoretical physicist named David Tong was speaking about quantum field theory. That is amazing because as a viewer/listener you are right there in front row. The place is at Cambridge University, England - the seat of many scientific discoveries. That whole place was one day in my living room and for an hour or so I was mesmerized by that presentation which would have been impossible to experience, short of taking a trip, let alone get a ticket to enter that lecture hall.
Next, I was sitting in front of a math teacher in a regular classroom. Here is what was fascinating about what he was talking about. He was expounding on what is zero raised to the power of zero. I beg your pardon if I go nerdy on the reader here. When I was in college at about the same time many of the baby boomers were, that was a big no-no, a total non-subject or if brought up only meant ignorance of the basic math. Well, in the age of modern pocket calculators, the lecturer just showed his audience that not only is zero raised to the power of zero worth discussing, it was revolutionary. At least, to me anyway. I will not spoil it but if you have a scientific calculator, or use one online, try first .2 raised to the power of .2, then keep lowering the number to several decimal points, as much as your calculator will allow. It reminded me of a favorite - a circle is nothing more than a polygon with an infinite number of sides. True, and it is one of the examples of how or why calculus works. Or, at least a great demonstration of so called limits in mathematical terms.
Speaking of limits, the worst mistake we can make is limit the extent by which our minds can travel. And the most important part is that we can do this regardless of our chronological age. If only we dare to let it go.
Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger were both accomplished and famous physicists but they too let their minds travel despite the extent of their knowledge. Actually, what they were good at was do experiments within their own mind. And just as well because what they conducted were actually beyond what their physical laboratories can do at that time nor was there the equipment or tools they could use to do it. As it turned out many of their so called thought experiments were supported by actual observations or by modern tools decades later.
So, not only should we not despair but be thankful that we are alive at a time such as now because our mental travel is now unlimited as never before. 'Ol Albert and inquisitive Erwin, what they knew then now pales in comparison to what the average B+ physics major knows or has in his or her finger tips to look at and understand.
And I leave you with this. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan without ever stepping foot in Africa. Of course, he also wrote science fiction about Mars. Naturally, we must mention too that Jules Verne and H.G. Wells wrote about far out subjects never even dreamed of by the learned scientists and inventors of their time. All three are just examples of many others who were inveterate mental travelers. And there was George Orwell who wrote in the 1940's a story that he imagined would happen two decades afterwards but he over estimated. "1984" was not going to occur until over three decades later than that predicted date. We are in it today.
Still despite all of that here we are and seeing the glass as half full we can be grateful that technology is not to be feared but to be used to "Have Mind Will Travel".
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