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I was thinking yesterday of how important attitude is.
Yet when I looked it up it became clear to me that it is important to define what I have in mind when I use the word attitude. It became obvious that when I say attitude it can mean different things to different people. For example, it is often said that someone has an “attitude.” It is seen as a negative thing. Something that puts a distance between the one with the “attitude” and those they are addressing. It made me think that in so much a clear definition is important. Like the word “father”. I may use it based on a good experience. Others on the other hand may have had a very bad experience of father, and my using that word is like waving a red flag to a bull. So I have not changed my thinking but I realize that when I say the word “attitude” I am talking about an “open, teachable” thing. One that does not assume they all there is to know about something, but is willing to hear another out and learn things. It is funny that when I am taught something I deliberately come for a place of knowing nothing (sometimes that is real easy as I really do know nothing). But at other times I know enough to be able to do a certain task, but I deliberately do not let on as I find it is the best way to learn something new. It may be just one or two things, but it is a key for me to doing something better. So when I say “attitude” is the key, I think it is probably “teachable attitude” is the key. For me that matters a lot. Generally, I can pick up very quickly if someone is closed or open. Either way I know I can learn, but to me it is only with a “teachable attitude” anyone can learn something. Closed can only become open if there is a willingness to consider. Consideration can be at the time of being made aware of something, or it can be at a later time when something is though about. Either way progress can only be made when a thought is considered without prejudice. Maybe a conclusion has been reached a long time ago or maybe a conclusion is invited for the first time. Too me a “teachable attitude” considers a matter and draws its own conclusions based on the evidence at hand. While a closed attitude refuses to consider anything but what the person believes to be true based on nothing but having been told something and holding to that line. Having a “teachable attitude” may lead down an unpopular lane or to places previously unexplored (I think Galileo saying the earth revolved around the sun) but is always leads to personal freedom (despite when silenced) and there is never anything worthwhile to be gained by shunning it.
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It seems I ignore trends at my peril.
I have been touched only slightly by what appears to be happening. I heard someone say on the weekend we live in the best country in the world. I sorta agree with that statement particularly when I see what is happening. There is no doubt in my mind that I am seeing more because more have access to camera’s and immediate upload. But this is where the trends come in to me. It does not seem to me I am only seeing more because there is greater immediate access but because there is more happening. Disasters and difficulties have always happened, but the trend would seem to suggest it is happening more often. I am not one to wish doom and gloom on anyone but the trend seems to suggest it is happening more and more. I honestly do not think the ones who faced the great depression expected the stock market to crash but it did. The Ukranians did not expect war. but it happened. What got me thinking along these lines was the rickety foundation of hope. I have seen a share of difficulties in this land (flood, fires, economic woes, the crime rate), yet while devastating to participants, on the whole it seems this place does not experience as much of the difficulties being experienced worldwide. (the earthquake in Myanmar looks to have been a doozy) Yet the cost of living, crime rate, the attitude of some to suffering is to me a downward trend. While I may not have experienced the worst of what is going on I call it a “creeping malady” being experienced worldwide and here. Bad things have always happened but at the moment many bad things happening all at once. Unfortunately the trend appears to be downward. Ernest Hemmingway wrote about a guy going bankrupt who was asked how it happened. His response was “gradually then suddenly.” That to me is the trend I am seeing at the moment. Unless there is some sort of intervention gradually will become suddenly. All that was to say what I had in mind to say when I started writing this. It was all about the foundation of hope. We live at a height that makes us think we are immune to flooding. We have enough to maintain a decent lifestyle. We are getting rid of a big tree in our yard that caused us more stress than anything else during Alfred. Yet I know one unforeseen event can undo security. I reckon it matters big time that my security lies in something beyond the temporal. I am seeing all around the world the temporal change in an instant. It is a real cliché but I think it is a very important truism. “Never doubt in the dark what was true in the light.”
Why that one means a lot to me is that sometimes I am inclined to let feelings take over. I do not necessarily feel like doing what I know is right for me to do. I would rather do my own thing. It can be that I have been listening to negative voices in my head. It can also be that I have been down the road before, and how I am inclined to respond at that given moment is the way I have always responded. That to me is a major stumbling block. On a purely physiological level I have establish pathways in my brain that take what seems to be the easiest option. It is a learned behaviour. But one that has always seen me not reach the goal I may have. I know that when ever I have followed it, it has been like snakes and ladders, and I find myself descending a ladder and starting from the bottom again. The amazing thing is though I always find I am in the same situation again. Avoidance does not make the problem disappear, it just means it needs to be confronted again down the track. To me it is like my perception of many video games where getting to the next level means I need to complete successfully the level before. It really depends how much I want something. If my desire is not strong enough, I will fall at the same hurdle and give up. But if I do want something I will deal with what has caused me to stop, and move on. I totally know I need help with that one but the one I depend on has never let me down, and he won’t start now. To me that sort of adds to the adventure. Nothing like dealing with what for me has proved impossible. |
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