THE RIGHT TO DRAW YOUR OWN LINES

(AND SPEAKING OF PHILOSOPHY: ANOTHER NEW BOOK?!?!?)

Photo by Javier Esteban on Unsplash

AUTHOR-TURNED-COMPARISON-SHOPPER’S NOTES: I originally wrote this piece five years ago, back in 2020, as a late-night Facebook ramble. And even then, it was far easier said than done.

But – fucking “rhymes-with-nutsy” as shit has gotten – I think the words still stand.

Or, at least, I still stand by them.

NOTE-WITHIN-A-NOTE: Along these same lines…last week, I started compiling a new book of hopefully-inspirational nonfiction like this, drawing largely from the old Facebook canon and my expanded essays here.

It’s a book that many of you have been asking me to do for years. So I’m finally doing it. HOPE YOU GUYS STILL WANT IT!

As of this writing, the tentative title is A Muscle Called Soul.

Photo by Natalie Parham on Unsplash

FUN FACT (and I’m just speaking personally, here): If I wanna be happy on this Earth, I gotta know, love, and accept the fact that every person is different. They like what they like, and they don't what they don't.

It's all very specific, even if they don't know precisely why.

You can analyze your taste in art, politics, relationships, you name it. It's probably a good idea, in terms of testing your parameters. I think why is an important question, and leads to potential clarification of who, what, where, and when.

But nobody can talk you out of your personal preferences. They can challenge 'em. They can offer options, and opposing points of view. They can blame, name, or shame you for having them. But that trick almost never works.

We only change when it makes sense to us, and see what we think might be a better way. Otherwise, we're pretty much sticking with what we know we like already. And there is no substitute for knowing what you like. What you don't. What you'll accept. And what you won't.

I think everybody has the right to draw their own lines.

But again, just speaking personally: remaining open to other possibilities is the only way we grow. Tasting the new flavor. Listening to the opposing viewpoint. As if they might tell us something we didn't already know, thereby enriching rather than entrenching ourselves.

As the great Robert Anton Wilson once said, "Convictions cause convicts." Which is to say: knowing more beats the shit out of deliberately knowing less.