I was reading on the NPR website and found a few essays that echoed my experience. One of them contained the "50% Theory". It has been observed that we easily cling to that which supports our own beliefs so I don't want to make that error here, but without straying too far into positivism I can see how one can remain optimistic with a creed like this one yet remain sufficiently pragmatic so one can meet adversity realistically.
He wrote:
Understanding what normal is! I can say that I still don't know what normal is. I can say that it is very different from what is was even a few years ago and radically different from what it was in my youth. That difference is in large part due to my education, or lack thereof, than anything else. The view of the world and my place in it put restrictions on my thinking so that I excluded many truths. Many truths have been revealed for the first time in recent years. As time goes on, you get a clearer picture of what "is" and see ever more clearly how ignorant we are. The best lesson isn't finding the right answers for what we once knew to be true and now realize we were hopelessly wrong. The best knowledge comes from seeing how we were fooled or self-deluded and learning logical steps to keep our minds on the right path to knowledge. It is better to have no answer than to have a false one or an answer that can't be supported by fact. We all should have a skeptical side and cultivate a scientific discipline with respect to everything.
But the non-rational part of our lives where we love and hope and feel and dream shouldn't be destroyed by the vagaries of life. Despair isn't a terminal slope, it is a sine wave. It rises and falls. Something to be endured like a rainstorm. And when sadness gives way to joy, regard it for the precious, temporary condition it is. It too will rise and fall. We might ask ourselves, "How bad does this get?" when facing some grim future. Even those balance points aren't static. There remains a hope that indeed things will cycle around to better times, and back to worse, and better...until our end. And to complicate this, not all life aspects are on the same rhythm. That may be the best balancing act of all. Finding a way to keep all the cycles from bottoming at the same time. It seems like it would help to have lots of objects in the air if you are to be a juggler in life's circus.
He wrote:
I believe in the 50-percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal; the other half, they are worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future. Steve Porter
Understanding what normal is! I can say that I still don't know what normal is. I can say that it is very different from what is was even a few years ago and radically different from what it was in my youth. That difference is in large part due to my education, or lack thereof, than anything else. The view of the world and my place in it put restrictions on my thinking so that I excluded many truths. Many truths have been revealed for the first time in recent years. As time goes on, you get a clearer picture of what "is" and see ever more clearly how ignorant we are. The best lesson isn't finding the right answers for what we once knew to be true and now realize we were hopelessly wrong. The best knowledge comes from seeing how we were fooled or self-deluded and learning logical steps to keep our minds on the right path to knowledge. It is better to have no answer than to have a false one or an answer that can't be supported by fact. We all should have a skeptical side and cultivate a scientific discipline with respect to everything.
But the non-rational part of our lives where we love and hope and feel and dream shouldn't be destroyed by the vagaries of life. Despair isn't a terminal slope, it is a sine wave. It rises and falls. Something to be endured like a rainstorm. And when sadness gives way to joy, regard it for the precious, temporary condition it is. It too will rise and fall. We might ask ourselves, "How bad does this get?" when facing some grim future. Even those balance points aren't static. There remains a hope that indeed things will cycle around to better times, and back to worse, and better...until our end. And to complicate this, not all life aspects are on the same rhythm. That may be the best balancing act of all. Finding a way to keep all the cycles from bottoming at the same time. It seems like it would help to have lots of objects in the air if you are to be a juggler in life's circus.