I used to spend time with someone who made me laugh, who I enjoyed being with and who fundamentally disagreed with almost everything I believed in. Just a quick word of advice as much fun as we were having, this is not sustainable. What I reflect on today though is a strange phenomena that probably has a psychological name. We would often challenge each other to read articles and books that would expound our thoughts and beliefs to the other person. So, they would dismiss my Brene Brown and Louise Hay and Martha Beck type reads and challenge me to read Nietzsche or Richard Bach. I can’t say if it was a shared experience, but when I read the books, I was challenged to, I was reading through my lens, my core beliefs and my musing mind. So inevitably, I was finding that in lots of ways these texts meant to change my mind I found to be echoing my thoughts. Dance to music no one else hears, be true to yourself, fly high even when no one believes that a seagull should have such lofty goals. There were some edgy things that were not quite as inspirational as my chosen guides, but why was I finding so much aligned in texts meant to prove that an opposite view was out there? I guess it just reinforces that we see what we are looking for, we see not what is there but who we are. It is also a reminder that seeing something different takes real effort, a conscious task of putting aside bias and blind spots. That to really see we have to take a fresh look. All the more encouragement than to seek out different points of view and really let them in.
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