By Susan Stone
We only think what we think until a better thought comes along, so why are we so sure we’re right?
Age can be a great teacher. If we are lucky enough to live a long life, we can accumulate a great deal of knowledge and wisdom…if we can just get our ego out of the way. We tend to lean toward the majority as if that undefined enigma has special power to discern truth. If the majority believes it, it’s probably true. The older I get, the more I realize how little I really understand about how the world works, the actual history of our planet or even the origins of Man. I only have my opinions about how things work or why I’m here, but my own experience has shown me that if I withhold my own opinion long enough I might just learn something.
Last week I had a strange conversation with a woman who was very articulate and obviously educated. I said something that challenged her belief in our health care system. For thirty minutes she went on to quote this media “expert” and that government official…but not one thing she said made a lick of sense. She obviously felt very strongly about this subject and continued to try to convince me that I was wrong. But nothing she said came from her own experience or from her heart. She believed it because they said it. Instead of a resolution, each year I choose a subject to study. I will spend an entire year observing and researching a single subject in order to understand it more fully. What I have discovered is that history is written by the “winners”. So the whole story of any culture or text is suspect. One of the most common stories we tell our school children is that Christopher Columbus discovered America. We now know that isn’t true, several cultures were here long before he even thought about crossing the Atlantic…but we continue to tell the story.
Recently a debate about removing all references to civil disobedience from our school history books took place in Colorado. I didn’t follow the story to see who won, but really? What story would we tell our future generations about Martin Luther King Jr. or even women winning the right to vote, without mentioning their civil disobedience? Are we seriously entertaining the idea of changing the facts for generations too young to remember? How will we explain becoming a Nation…independent from England? If we are having this debate now, isn’t it reasonable to think we have done so in the past?
If we look at cultures collectively, we can begin to understand how stories begin. For example, every ancient culture has either a written, oral or pictorial records of a great flood. I grew up with the story of Noah, as many of us did. Geology and archeology has shown us that this global event really did happen. But do we get stuck believing in our version of the story? Was God really so angry with the world that he destroyed it? Can it be no other way? Or can we take a broader look at the facts? Ancient cultures blamed a lot of natural disasters on God. They didn’t completely understand the world around them either.
There is still so much mystery left in the world. Every day, discoveries are made which change previous facts we thought we knew. We don’t have this thing called “life” figured out…not by a long shot! And that’s okay. There is some comfort I find in living in the “void”…in the “I don’t know”. When I was younger, that thought made me feel inferior. Not any more, now it makes me feel humble. I can confidently and without hesitation say, I think what I think for now, all of which is subject to change.
You can find Susan Stone at Beaufort Chiropractic. She is an Intuitive healer, Reiki Master, minister and counselor. Author of “We Heard You,” available on Amazon.com You may contact Susan at theriverangel.ss@gmail.com.
