Topic > Monttaigne's Human Mind - 919

Toward the end of his essay, he writes about the story of the woman who believed she had actually devoured a pin while eating bread (45). The woman actually hadn't consumed the pin at all, but when she was told to vomit, a man threw a bent pin into her vomit and she thought she was cured just by seeing that pin. “Believing she had vomited the pin, the woman immediately felt relieved of the pain.” (45, lines 10-12) Why are we satisfied with thoughts or questions that are open to the sight of our “answer?” The woman hadn't actually swallowed a pin, but as soon as she saw it she knew she was saved. Moments earlier, this woman had an unbearable pain that was eating away at her and now suddenly that pain was gone simply because she saw a pin in the vomit. “But all this can be attributed to the close connection between the mind and the body, whose fortunes influence each other.” (45) Reading this quote from Montaigne, a thought came to mind: we believe what we must believe. Why? Why do we need to have answers to all of life's questions? Yes, curiosity killed the cat, but our minds need that “brain food” to function. We need those deep, open thoughts that push us to create different thoughts that might lead to the answers we think we so desperately need. As I neared the end of my essay, I came to the conclusion that writing about Montaigne's words expanded my mind to other questions. The human brain is a place I honestly would never want to try to understand, but it poses an interesting topic. The human imagination can make us feel, think, create and question things that can sometimes leave us feeling empty, but isn't that the beauty of our minds? Our minds are extremely powerful; our minds create us