I can crochet. In fact, it’s possible, and I’m skilled enough, to be able to crochet anything I can imagine. But just because I can doesn’t necessarily mean I should. I submit, as evidence, the following pictures.
I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things in life that can, but, perhaps, shouldn’t be done. For example…
You also don’t have to take every bit of advice you’re given. You don’t have to follow every recommendation your doctor gives you. You don’t have to obey every mandate purported authorities in government hand down. You don’t have to blindly follow anyone who (figuratively) is jumping off that cliff your mother warned you about.
All of those questions circle back to the topic of Thinking 2 Steps Ahead (T2SA) again. I know I’m preaching to the choir here. Thinking 2 Steps Ahead is a simple process that helps us make choices we can live with every day. Choices that affect the quality, happiness, and contentedness of our lives. Mastering that thought process, learning to discern whether you should or should not do something, or how much of something you should do, is such an important life skill. It has been, and maybe could be again, my contribution to making the world a better place, one decision at a time.
Do people actually understand that doing nothing is almost always an option in making a choice about a course of action? Walking away is a choice. Refusing to engage is a choice.
I remember, years ago, getting a speeding ticket on my way to an uncle’s funeral in Illinois. I was offered the opportunity to attend traffic school in exchange for having the violation expunged from my driving record. As a fan of life-long learning I looked forward to the experience. I was the only adult (besides the instructor) in the class. One young man explained, resentfully, how he ended up in traffic school. He was driving along, he said, minding his own business, when someone flipped him the bird at a stop light. That so incensed him that he followed the car to a parking lot, confronted the other driver, had a very physical altercation and landed in 1) the hospital, 2) jail and 3) traffic school. He ended the story with the statement, “What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just let that pass!”
Ahhhh….yes….you could have. And you should have.
Learning to be discerning, and making wise decisions is a sign of emotional maturity. Learning to handle conflict and disappointment is a sign of emotional maturity. Learning to turn the other cheek (as it instructs in the Bible) is a sign of emotional maturity. Learning to have a civil discussion with someone who completely disagrees with you and your viewpoint is a sign of emotional maturity. Not wearing some of the get-ups in the photo above, regardless of by whom or why they were made, is a sign of emotional maturity. Bonus points if you can make the creator feel like they gave you the greatest gift ever.
I don’t mean to be preachy here. Our culture is sorely lacking in emotional maturity. I don’t know why and have no clue how to fix it. But I do know it needs to be fixed.
I’d love to hear stories about times you made choices you thought about, or maybe didn’t think about, and what happened as a result. Or if you have any ideas about how to fix the soaring problem of the lack of emotional maturity and wisdom in our culture today.
P.S. I’m reading a biography of Rutherford B Hayes, the 19th president of the United States. In next week’s post I’ll tell you why. But this week, in my reading, I was struck by how many times he considered courses of action, and chose to do nothing. He carefully weighed the consequences of doing or not doing, and after he made his choice, he let the thing play out, and then learned to live with the situation. He was said to be a good man, a wise man, in his time.
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