Saturday, October 14, 2017
When I Was A Fool...
By: Donovan Baldwin
A few years ago, there was a time in my life when it seemed that everything I did, everything I thought, was "wrong".
People told me, and life demonstrated, it seemed, that I was a fool.
I wanted to argue my case, "prove" that I was right. Even more I wanted "them" to know that they were wrong.
Finally, I hit on the ultimate solution: I was going to outlive everybody! That way the time would come when I could laugh at them because they were dead, I was alive, and I was "right" by default.
Over time I came to realize a couple of problems with that plan.
First, being alive didn't make me right, and, them being dead sort of took all the fun out of being right...if I WAS right.
See, that was the problem.
Ninety-nine percent of the "rights" and "wrongs" in the equation were "beliefs" and "opinions"...not facts.
It was then I began to see the real solution. Proving that my "right" was the "right" right was impossible. In fact, I could even be wrong!
That wasn't right!
Then I figured out the real solution.
I can only live and enjoy life doing what I BELIEVE is right. It doesn't really matter what others think or say about my honest beliefs.
So, they can be right, I can be right, even though one of us may be wrong.
As long as I do what I think is right, I don't need to worry about what they think is right.
Right?
People told me, and life demonstrated, it seemed, that I was a fool.
I wanted to argue my case, "prove" that I was right. Even more I wanted "them" to know that they were wrong.
Finally, I hit on the ultimate solution: I was going to outlive everybody! That way the time would come when I could laugh at them because they were dead, I was alive, and I was "right" by default.
Over time I came to realize a couple of problems with that plan.
First, being alive didn't make me right, and, them being dead sort of took all the fun out of being right...if I WAS right.
See, that was the problem.
Ninety-nine percent of the "rights" and "wrongs" in the equation were "beliefs" and "opinions"...not facts.
It was then I began to see the real solution. Proving that my "right" was the "right" right was impossible. In fact, I could even be wrong!
That wasn't right!
Then I figured out the real solution.
I can only live and enjoy life doing what I BELIEVE is right. It doesn't really matter what others think or say about my honest beliefs.
So, they can be right, I can be right, even though one of us may be wrong.
As long as I do what I think is right, I don't need to worry about what they think is right.
Right?
Labels: beliefs, donovan baldwin, how to live, life lesson, live your own life, opinions, right, right and wrong, wrong
