The mind of an introvert is somewhat of an enigma, akin in a way to secret codes and cyphers. Ask ten introverts how they think and you’re likely to elicit eleven distinct answers. Sifting through the myriad words these individuals use to describe themselves would be daunting and superficially elusive, but listen to their use of words to describe themselves and therein lies the key. All prime words point to a realm within that each individual touch in order to power their move in and around and through the world in which we all live.

The genre of humor known as puns is one likely vehicle, the operation of which, gives a clue to understanding how the introvert’s mind works. Puns work because words that sound the same but mean something different, or words that are spelled the same by have alternate definitions, catch us by surprise. The mental process of an introvert toys with these kinds of words as a matter of course. It’s not as though there is a choice, it’s just how our minds function.

The introvert mind notices these anomalies and can’t stop noticing. It is intrigued by the abnormal or peculiar juxtaposition, and can’t stop minding. The introvert mind is powerless to cease this fascination with all such word-play. Not all introverts turn to punning, but any punster is most definitely relying on the influences of introversion to ply this craft.

Language, more specifically the spoken word, was the most important invention of our prehistory forbearers. Once the transition was made across that divide of language, so much was opened to the inquiring mind. When the first person spoke the word spoon, it didn’t matter whether it was an extrovert who was concerned with some utensil with which to drink soup who saw a clam shell and recognized he’d found an answer, or an introvert who saw that same clam shell and recognized a universal answer to handle all liquid needs. Both turned to that realm within where all ideas are spawned. The extrovert sees something functional to solve a unique matter, an introvert is fascinated with the universal answer to all similar issues.

The extrovert for their part sees with the pinpoint reach of a laser beam, tightly focused, while the introvert peers with a search beam spread to cover a wider area. The introvert mind casts out a wide beam to expose a spate of information, the extrovert mind seeks a specific answer.

In the search for wide ranging information the introvert mind immerses itself in the inner world of words, there to loll around in a stew of energy and creative mindfulness, encountering first a word that strikes no bell, which leads to another also without substance, but that takes one to a third and fourth, and there begins to emerge a pattern that holds meaning. This is how the introvert mind works. It is not by choice. It is the nature of the creature. The extrovert mind looks to the inner world but for answers out there. It scans the known world of creation and infrastructure for solutions; it sees patterns and possibilities, and from them cobbles together new patterns that might serve as an answer.

The introvert mind plays in the pastoral fields of the gods, and discovers linkages and patterns and possibilities, and out of all this, dreams.