Go Deep. Be Wise.

It's time we stopped defining ourselves and others by our opinions, our beliefs, and even our knowledge, or ignorance. It's as bad as defining anyone by color or ethnic origin or gender. We're much more than that. And we have to look more deeply in order for understanding and compassion and love to get a firm hold in our lives.

It's also time we stopped defining ourselves by the perspectives and habits that have worked well for us in the past. We too easily fall in love with our own mindsets and frameworks, intoxicated by the sweet smell of their success. When we learn to hold more loosely to all our property, and that includes our "intellectual property," we then become more open to the new and perhaps superior path that a subtle form of arrogance or comfort would otherwise block us from seeing.

The moral structure of the spirit requires us to be closed off to very few things and their implications. Otherwise, to be open is to be empowered. To go deep is to be wise.

On Being Open: Adventures and Maps.

One of the greatest human qualities is a genuine openness to new ideas. Socrates perhaps pioneered the view that wisdom could consist in knowing how much you don't know, and being open to explore and learn.

Our problem, typically, though, is that our openness is limited and very temporary. I'm open to learn until I think I have, and then I quickly close down that particular aperture of openness and draw a map that I henceforth use to chart my way forward, with much less of a readiness to being further corrected or educated on the matter I now think I know. Maybe that's just me. But I suspect it's also a tendency in many other people. And when we have a map, we hold on to it tightly.

The problem is that pioneers have often been terrible map makers. The first explorers of any continent or island typically drew up very inaccurate maps of the new territory. It took other people, later on, to get things straight. And that gives me a nice metaphor for my own intellectual exploring. I shouldn't be so quick to think that the first map of a territory that I draw up mentally is just fine, and fully accurate. I shouldn't let it block further openness. A map is fine, and useful, but maybe it's better thought of as a place to start than as a place to end. Perhaps it shouldn't shut down my eagerness to learn and even change my mind, but rather spur it on.

Just a thought.

Richard Branson on Second Chances

A number of CEOs and prominent individuals in the culture were recently asked what advice they would give their 22 year old selves, if that were possible. Richard Branson, the founder of The Virgin Group, said something very interesting about how we view ourselves and others - and, especially, how we react to the mistakes that other people have made in their lives. He wrote, at his present age of 64:

I am not the person I was 42 years ago. I am not even the person I was two years ago. We all change, we all learn, we all grow. To continually punish somebody for the mistakes they made in the past is not just illogical, it is plain wrong. 

He advises his early self, and any of us who will listen, to be a person who embraces the possibility of change, both in yourself and in others. He says:

We all deserve a second chance. Next time you have the opportunity to give somebody their second chance, don't think twice.

I know I've needed second chances, and sometimes more chances than that. Maybe you have, too. It's good to remember this when we consider our attitudes toward others. When we give people the chance to change and grow and improve, we enable ourselves to benefit from what can result in their lives, so that our mercy, forgiveness, and even embrace of them can enhance our own lives as well as theirs.

Here's to second chances! And more. And to Richard Branson's bit of life wisdom.

The Good Wrinkles to Have

Age doesn’t just bring new wrinkles to your body, it can also bring new wrinkles to your thought, and these are good to have.

A perfectly smooth surface has no depth. 

There is deep texture to even simple wisdom.

No path worth taking will be just smooth and easy.

Life itself is never perfectly smooth. Our thoughts shouldn’t be, either.

There is a beauty to texture and depth.

If your body is going to show the magnitude of your experience, make sure your mind does, too.

The good wrinkles to have flow from experiences fully lived.