Room 116 pointed me to a quote that reflects a lot about how I think we should experience the world:
In fact, it most reminds me of an anecdote that I took a lot of stock in while growing up. When I was young, some of the ways that values were driven into my life were through these political cartoons, article clips, and quotes that always occupied the same spot on the family refrigerator for as long as I remember.
Having seen it daily and driven into my head constantly, I remember this story (the important parts, at least) completely.
It goes that there’s this shepard, and a traveling passerby. He asks the shepard, “I wonder what kind of weather we’re going to have today?”
The shepard, in plain fashion, answers “well, the kind of weather I like.”
This doesn’t seem to be the answer the traveler is looking for, so he asks, “how can you be so sure that we’ll have to kind of weather you like?”
“Having learned that I cannot always have what I like,” the shepard responds, “I have come to like what I have.”
Proust and the shepard get to the essence of what I think is a critical idea to be mindful of, that maybe I caught a bit of in a recent post. It’s very hard to look objectively and productively at others, if we can’t see ourselves in but one way.
Sometimes learning about others is really just learning more about ourselves.
Filed under: Adaptation, The way I think is | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adaptation, flexibility, learning
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