Knowing

The coast of Cuba, absolutely breathtaking at any time of day

I know very few things, but I believe some stuff. I have had experiences that happened and formed my beliefs, but they are just that. They are only my beliefs.

I believe in the law of cause and effect, that for every action there is an equal reaction. What the reaction is, I don’t always know. I can speculate, postulate, formulate and hypothesize what could happen, what should happen, but ultimately I don’t know.

Things happen around me, and the way I look at them affects how I feel. It might be a big change in the economy, or an election that puts someone into a position of power who doesn’t seem fit to rule, or a natural disaster that ruins lives. I can let these events paralyze me with fear, or not. It’s my choice.

Look before you commit – you never know what might be coming if you don’t

I watched someone walking the other day. He was an older gentleman and he looked like he had somewhere important to be.

With head down, he moved across the road in a crosswalk. He clearly had the right to cross, but the car that was coming felt otherwise. It was a narrow miss.

He was outraged. He swore, shook his fist, and let the driver know that he was wrong not to stop. Angry man was right – the onus was on the driver to stop and give pedestrians the right of way.

But would it matter who was right if there had been impact? Angry man would have been lying there, broken or worse, correct in his assessment of the situation but wrong in outcome.

Sometimes, being right isn’t the most important thing.

Tag: Knowing

When Being Right is Dangerous