lookin in…..
A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.
Being a believer in the adage that the examined life is no picnic, I do take harsh looks inward and more often than not, do not like what I behold. For a while, I thought that this act, in itself, was a noble one until one cloudy autumn day – ok, I lie, I don’t remember what the day was like (hey, if that Million Little Pieces guy could fib and still make a pretty buck, why do I hold back ?!) – a well meaning yet sharp somebody did tell me that an inward look followed by inactivity on facets that need change was rather pointless.
Ouch ! Cruel, I agree, but truth was never technically designed to smell like roses…….
These inward looks at any negatives, though, need to be accomplished with the proviso that ONLY bathwater needs to be thrown out. While seemingly trite a thought, this needs to be an intentional focus coz the easiest thing is to cast away the baby during reflections of experiences gone awry.
‘Once bitten, twice shy’ doesn’t fully cover it. I prefer Mark Twain’s version – “the cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won’t sit upon a cold stove lid, either.”
An unkind word, a boorish comment, a uncalled for gesture; anything is enough to assume the proportion of a brush big enough to tar everything and everyone. If we let it…..
The wisdom to get just the required wisdom from an experience and no more, is not something instinct teaches. In fact, instinct teaches one to make – and believe as gospel truth – every conclusion made from an experience; instinct doesn’t require us to sift through. The ability to sift judiciously is the result of wisdom, most of it coming from the crucible of experience.
Separating the wheat from the chaff has the power to make a spirit; blind acceptance is a spirit breaker.
Failure is only failure if nothing is learnt from examining it. If learning is the spark on the plug that starts the engine of change, the will to change is that turn of the ignition key that gets spark plug sparking. Self-realization puts the key in.
Finding the silver lining is truly an art form………..
C.
Erudite and not pedantic in the least
and one expects nothing less from you C, but (ahem), just suppose I ‘metaphor’ I did’nt like… or an analogy that pissed me off or a simile that stole my cookies, would I be a ‘literary dissident’…..
Bring it bro..wear that keyboard out….Neil
Makes this whole blog thing worth it !!
Peace.
Thats what usually looked for when one says ‘experience’. But put simply it has to come with ‘common sense’ to make sure it will be useful for someone in future. Or shall we say ‘sensible experience’ to be more apt for the part?
Thought provoking and introspective.
Hello Allen, I tend to agree.
The slip between the cup and the lip is, however, evident at times when we refuse to look for that silver lining – even if we know we must – coz we are in this ‘valley of shadow of death’
Common sense, as they say, is not always common.
Finding the silver lining is an art form which only experience can teach, and that too if you are willing! Million was not made in one day or in one go, it was made after repeated tries during which mistakes were eliminated one by one. But if that art was perfected it could have been a billion.
@Million…, you simply put what the blogger beautifully put!
the whole process of creating and developing experience has been fixed as a fountain head for the progress of human civilisation from the early stages of mankind. It was by this yardstick that even the population was divided into various social groups from the beginning. So its a part of the human fabric. And its a natural justice for the current and future generations to follow this rule. But unlike the blogger I doubt whether in the present day of shortcuts people show the maturity to give it the uber position.