Today’s quotation:
I’d always thought of myself as an open-minded person. I had no patience with anyone who put down other kids because of their race, religion, or sexuality. But that’s just one kind of open-mindedness. There’s another kind, too, that’s willing to see people for who they really are and admit when you were wrong about them. That’s the part I still need to work on.-Kelley Armstrong
The Calling
Today’s Meditation:
It’s so easy to judge others based simply on what we see and what we witness them say and do. This is especially true today when we’re encouraged to judge entertainers even when we have no musical training or vote people out of a house or an island based on our personal likes or dislikes. The more we judge, the more our minds close, and the less new information we’re willing to entertain when dealing with other people in the future. We judge people based on appearance all the time, which is not helpful to anyone.
An open mind allows us to entertain new notions. It can help us learn more about a situation when everyone around us has already decided. An open mind allows us to be fair about what we see and hear, for only with an open mind can we realize that there may be four or five or six possible explanations for a person, not just the one that immediately leaps into our minds because of our preconceived notions, biases, and prejudices.
I want to have an open mind because I want to be fair, and I want to be fair with others because I want people to be fair to me. I’ve said wrong things because I was hurting inside, not because I was trying to be mean, and I hope that someone else will realize that. I’ve done wrong things because of poor decision-making skills, not out of malice, and I need to remember that other people make similar mistakes in their lives. And it’s up to me to keep learning from other people rather than judging them–I can learn about the effects of fear from this “rude” person who’s really just scared, and then I can pass those lessons on to others.
Our open minds can help bring balance and peace to the world and keep us from judging others harshly when no judgment is warranted. And they can help us learn and grow and cast out our frustration with others in favor of compassion for the trials and difficulties they’re facing.
Questions to consider:
What does it mean to you to have an open mind?
Why do so many of us close our minds new and different interpretations of the world we experience?
What are some of the most significant effects of a closed mind?
For further thought:
Never stop learning and adapting. The world will constantly be changing. If you limit yourself to what you knew and what you were comfortable with earlier in your life, you will grow increasingly frustrated with your surroundings as you age.-David Niven
