“We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought”
Fahrenheit 451 Captain Beatty

One gift of serving others as a therapist is the remarkable range of beliefs and perspectives to which you are exposed. Religious. Political. Ethical. Moral. A rushing and wildly meandering stream of viewpoints washes over you in the course of a single day. And over the course of years, in my experience anyway, the nature of that considerable gift proves an invitation, an ask: Are you sure about that opinion you just casually spouted? Are you certain about those ‘facts’ you just boldly quoted? Are you confident that’s the righteous hill you want to die on? Over time, at first begrudgingly but eventually wisely, I came to understand not only that the correct answer for most of us most of the time is no, but that our original error is staking a claim on these rigid and inflated positions in the first place. And in many cases, taking such stands through the course of our lives was what ultimately landed us in therapy to begin with.

So on what ground does one stand?, you reasonably ask. We’ve a human right to our opinions, to our beliefs, you remind me, remind yourself. If global progress of any kind is to be ushered in, does it not require the taking of categorical stands within the very matters referenced above? Religious. Political. Ethical. Moral.

One would think that’s the case, that last thing, the unequivocal need for definitive stands… as a person, as a parent, as a nation. And yet I can’t see that it’s brought us along too far, all that standing of ground, all those lines in the sand, all those weapons and wars and defensive strategies. Governments resolve to this and that; and leaders promise to this and that; and corporations and preachers and career coaches and supplement peddlers guarantee this and that. Seems to me with all that resolving and promising and guaranteeing, we (as in humankind as a whole) should be a might better off than we find ourselves today.

I’m not making a case for hopelessness here. Nor am I advocating for apathy. What I' am suggesting is that it might be worthwhile if each of us, now and again, would adjust our lens on the world, would audit our relience on a favored guru, would conduct some research on just how solid Like it or not, the light cast by our collective lives proves varied and changing and beyond the reach of our the most sincere of predictors.

It’s the best place to start.