More Thoughts on Thinking and Opinions
May 21, 2023
"Love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars." ~ Og Mandino
Are all opinions of equal value?
No - People have equal rights to have their opinions. Some of my opinions are informed and have greater value than other opinions I have which possess very little value. For better or worse, I have a right to the whole sorted continuum of them.
Yet - if I am wise, I will keep most of my uninformed opinions either to myself or within a small circle of trusted friends to test and be corrected.
True friends will challenge my ill-informed opinions and may save me from much public embarrassment.
Like most people who are labeled "ADHD," I express my thoughts to see what I am thinking, test my thinking, and, sometimes, revise my thinking.
Even this thought is subject to revision. "Nothing is more dangerous than an enemy with nothing to lose." - Eragon
Application
Help your enemy have something to gain, which, if lost, would be a loss.
Mutual self-interest, acknowledged, is the first step in negotiation and, trust.
Looking out for the other person's interests in to your own advantage.
I have thousands of such friends in these "private" havens of social community.
Not everything I say has great value. Make that a matter of public record in this private place.
There are not two sides to every issue. There are at least 360 ... One for each degree around it and infinite in between each.
Only divinity has the full perspective and shares bits and pieces with humanity. We need to talk to each other.
"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make a mistake." ― Elbert Hubbard
I do change my mind, but sometimes modesty prevents me from doing it in public
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth .. most .. pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." ~ Churchill "
"Look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror." Rabbi Shai Specht
"If you step in a puddle, don't blame the puddle." - Rabbi Shai Specht:
“Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.”- Georges Erasmus Aboriginal leader from Canada
"Avoid judging yesterdays choices through the lens of todays knowledge and resources. We all did the best we could with what we had at that time." www.twitter.com/@jennwatts
An example of where disagreement can go wrong because it is actually agreement.
Retweeted Martin Yirrell (@MYirrell): @tomsims There is no chaos, just the outworking of God's plan.
I wanted to disagree with him because he thought he was disagreeing with me.
But, I agree that he is right depending upon where one stands, either in the small snapshot of time and space, we we are, or the larger view of the realm of physicals and cosmology ...
Or the eternal realm where none of us has fully come to call home as yet, unadulterated by the laws of nature.
Here, there is chaos and yet, none... Looking for something to happen and rushing it?
I posted this a year ago.
We have to hold government accountable .... especially those we supported. Justice is never about partisan politics.
Partisan politics is simply one of the tools that just people employ for a greater cause while others use it to gain power and favor.
Your candidate is not perfect and will not always make the best choice.
The right thing is always the right thing even when we cannot all agree what it is.
Elections are just a start and never a finish. The more important jobs of citizens are to listen, learn and lobby.
This much, I am committed to: Stand up to those who exploit the poor --- At least, set some limits and apply the same sort of zoning restrictions that other businesses have to live with.
Sometimes the struggle to assign or deflect blame can get in the way of actually solving a problem.
What we need is often a broader perspective.
Acts 1:1-11 (NRSV) In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
There is an upside and a downside to being responsible for our own messes, decisions, and general junk.
The downside is that we are responsible and we have to pay our own price.
The upside is that we are not automatic victims. Our parents' bad choices do not relegate us to a life of bad choices.
We can break the cycle. Of course, there is the matter of our own sins and this snippet of scripture does not tell the whole story of the good news of how they can be put away.
Sometimes we have to hear the bad news first ... but good news is coming.
"The word of the LORD came to me: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge’? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die." (Ezekiel 18:1-4 ESV
On an entirely unrelated not: Am I the only one who uses emoticons for punctuation marks? I do not have one for a question mark, but I've been known to use the smiley as a period if I am writing another sentence 🙂 Perhaps this is like creating my own personal grammar.