Please don’t read into this that all crazy ideas are great. That is not true. Only some crazy ideas are great. However, all great ideas sound crazy because if they were just merely good, most people would be able to understand it and agree upon it as being good, as many of us could have come up with them. In contrast, a great idea, in the true sense of the “great” adjective rather than its overused parlance version, is great from the unlikelihood many of us could have conceived it, understand it, and/or believe in its feasibility being anything short of crazy. The challenge with great ideas sounding crazy, though, is how to differentiate it from the crazy sounding ideas that are actually crazy.
Wisdom cannot all be gained theoretically
The Buddha might have gotten a lot of wisdom and insight through thought and meditation, but more mortal mortals don’t. Sure, a little thought, reflection, deduction, meditation, and similar mental actions might get you some insight and wisdom, but, for the most part, we get most of our wisdom through life. Some of it is from our life lived, successes and mistakes, while the rest are lives lived by others. Life still is, by far, the uncontested best teacher we have.
Writing quotes does not make one quotable
A little truth and a little self-deprecating trash talk to myself, from me, as I tend to think in conversation of characters rather than as mental soliloquies. Quoting oneself is vanity, if one is trying to become quotable or assert one is quotable in that sense. To be quotable means someone else has to quote you, and that has yet happen to me despite all the quotes I have written for myself throughout my life, though only started sharing since the late days of COVID when I learned to self-publish on Amazon to be able to help others with “a novel in them” to get it out of them, whereby I could complete the process for them. To self-publish, though, I needed to have something to publish, so I collected 100 of those quotes and wrote a little something about them, like this post about this quote, and put it in a little book called Stars I Put in My Sky to Live By on Amazon. I’m flattered a few people have taken the time and kindness to rate it there, and even on Goodreads. However, I’ve yet been quoted so I can’t claim to be quotable despite all the quotes. Maybe that says something about my quotes! 😉
No sage starts out as one
Pick anybody real who you consider a sage. Were they always so wise? Of course, not. How could they have been? Who would have wisdomous insights into life and people without having lived much, like they wouldn’t have done when they were young, or even a child if they became wise even in their youth. No sage starts out as one. Now, in that regard, here are some fun thought exercises to try. What stupid things would these sages have engaged in in their lives before they became sages? And at what point would they have become sages? It’s not like they weren’t a sage one day, and a sage the next, so “point” would probably be a time span over which time more and more people considered them wise, rather than a moment in time.
Peace of mind is the breather to feeling alive
I’ve heard happiness described in a lot of ways, with two dominating. One is feeling alive, while the other is having peace of mind. I definitely do understand both. One is euphoria, flow state, and similar exaltations, while the other is being satisfied with how everything is in the moment so that you’re not wanting more. The former is not sustainable, though, even if that feeling alive state can be far longer than brief bursts or moments of joy. And if one felt joy all the time, the joy would either become the norm, or one would be chasing more joyous joys all the time, and that can’t be 100% happiness. The latter, meanwhile, seems to be a calm and neutral state that lacks the joyous aspect of happiness that is a natural high to humans. Besides, life would get pretty boring pretty quickly if one were always satisfied with everything, even if satisfaction was mere acceptance, and never being able to exhibit desire that is a pretty human quality. However, the two can complement each other, which is what I am positing. Have and chase all the goals you want that will make you feel alive. But when you’re not doing that, try to find the peace of mind required to let you accept everything the way they are, until you’re able to feel alive again.
Digital Citizen 