by Kris Bayer, Hamilton
Long ago I ran across this saying, Small minds talk about people. Average minds think and talk about things. Great minds think and talk about ideas. This speaks to the editor’s hope for letters that are nice and also that it might be more effective to start talking about ideas rather than others.
How many of you/us are reacting to something or someone based on the past, based on your own trauma, or based on opinions you have held and believed for 30 some years or more? We all need an upgrade in our thinking!! Our world has changed, and I am wondering how many of us have changed with it! How many of you/us are still living based on the past or still holding on to the past? Few will admit this.
It is pretty clear as I read the letters to the editor that we are still focusing on the other people, those who get their news inputs from elsewhere. We are focusing on institutions built in the past that are no longer relevant. We are focusing on old theories of education, of health and well-being, and of governance.
What we FOCUS on is what we see, and we create more of the same. At what point will we focus on something else? a way forward for all of us? a new way of being together? a new way of learning? an emergent future that has not yet fully arrived? The future will not look like today or yesterday. No one really knows for sure what it will look like, but we are already creating it nonetheless with our daily choices and thoughts. Are you actively participating or allowing others to do it for you?
We truly need an upgrade. When was the last time you learned something new? Something that radically changed your thinking and your life? If you have not changed, your thinking is not relevant either. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to shed my skin!
I challenge you!
Blow up your old ways of thinking with some new perspectives, new possibilities, or new science. Our world is on fire and the access to information is readily available for your consumption. The key is that learning is natural (built into the design of humans) and that if you have stopped learning, you are dying. Schools and institutions are not natural or relevant today which is why they require coercion! They actually slow down and/or eradicate creativity, natural learning, and responsibility. “98%–of teachers say creating is so important that it should be taught daily, but when tested, they nearly always favor less creative children… Why? Because people who are more creative also tend to be more playful, unconventional, and unpredictable, and all of this makes them harder to control.” How to Fly a Horse by Ashton. Control is valued today. Is this what we want for the future of our children? for us?
Learning is critical to our future if we are to survive. We need “strategies to mitigate the reality that humans can be reflexive, lazy thinkers who seek confirmation of what they believe to be true and affirmation of their self-image.” Learn or Die by Hess. That says it all.
Again, I challenge you to learn something that is new to you, an upgrade to your current thinking and life. We need each other to be and to do our best!
We can’t keep doing the same things and saying the same things that we always have unless we want the same future we had in the past. Let go of the past; it’s over!
It’s time to upgrade and move forward together.
Here’s hoping!