Sunday, November 09, 2008

Is Better the Best?

In the good ol' days, it was easy. Good or Evil: pick one.

Nowadays, it's choose from the following: Good, Better, Somewhat Good, Mostly Good, A Little Better, Probably Not The Best, Better Than The Last One, Good Except For That One Part, Decent, Probably Bad, Obviously Bad, and a dozen more shades in-between.

All these choices and the sometimes fine distinction between them can make it difficult--if not nearly impossible to choose. However, almost as bad as making no choice is choosing one and not continuing to look for a better one. Those people take a short-sighted view. "I already made a good choice, so there can't be a better one." Or, "I already made a good choice, so why should I bother looking for a better one?"

"I make enough money in my minimum-wage job to pay for cigarettes, so why should I bother looking for a better job?"

"I learned enough in high school to pass my driver's ed and get a slightly-better-than-minimum-wage-paying job, so why should I continue my education?"

"My boyfriend doesn't beat me, and he doesn't cheat on me very often, so why should I look for a different boyfriend?"

"I've already loudly proclaimed my political opinion to anyone who couldn't escape, so why should I consider that I might be wrong?"

"My church teaches good principles, so why should I consider that there might be even more good principles?"

There is more knowledge on Earth than anyone can learn, more experiences than anyone can experience, and an incredibly limited amount of time. Choose what you learn and what you experience wisely.

1 comment:

prin said...

I realized yesterday that a person's mind is like a box. When it's closed, the lid is on and it seems full. It's only when you open it that you realize it's empty, and unfortunately, opening it is next to impossible for most people. :(