The Listener

   To say that the mind is  a complicated thing may be a cliche, but it is nevertheless a truth. To say that something has a mind of its own is true, though that mind can have separate parts.  Psychologists have tried to categorize the working of the mind into enough various components so as to formulate a science of it, but their efforts  have been about as useful as attempting to categorize all the grains of sand that exist in the world.
    The mind is always at work, isn't it?  Even when asleep, our thought processes are active, albeit in dreams.  To think that we can control what happens in our minds is a misconception of how our minds work. No one welcomes nightmares, but we all have them. And it's the same for neuroses, worrying, obsessions, bad thoughts.  Well, we think we don't want them, but the way the mind works, yes we do.  A part of the mind invites darkness. We wouldn't know how to fill the void if we didn't have those dark areas.  Psychologists and psychotherapists don't try to rid their patients of their monsters, but try to show  them how to live with them. And not always done successfully, as witness the numbers in  those professions who have mental problems themselves.
    However, the schisms of the mind are not always a bad thing.  Or at least I hope not. When my mind is churning, accusing, rationalizing, regretting,seeking, looking for a rationale, and most critical, for a place to lay my thoughts, another dimension of mind opens, and there is an anonymous but familiar listener. I recount all my troubles, hopes and dreams to a seemingly understanding presence who hears and accepts as valued  what I confide.  I believe it's only in fiction that minor characters exist, such as the sympathetic and understanding listener. Every human being considers themselves to be the major character,and their brains can only secondarily absorb the plight of another. So I transfer all my miseries from the everyday part of my mind to the lesser used third-party section where I can find support of some nature, ephemeral as it may be.  And so it goes.