The Richness In Being Wrong

Just in my parents life time, people of colour have gone from being second class citizens, to being able to sit next to a white person on the bus, and being homosexual has become legally acceptable, in most of the world, no longer a criminal offence.

Two huge shifts of societal thinking that required an up-rooting and detangling of conditioning from the government, educational system and religion. And of course, a lot of protest to initiate the change.

This gets me thinking; what widely accepted ideas or concepts existing right now are going to be uprooted in my life time?

Inherently, we don’t like being wrong, because this bruises the ego. But the egos purpose is to separate and distinguish between that which is ourselves and another human, living creature, tree or apple. This defined separation creates a breeding ground for hierarchy and then we find ourselves in a world where black people can’t vote and gay people are criminals.

So really, a little bruising to the ego ain’t such a bad thing.

The truth is, we’re wrong about the vast majority of things we think we know. Science is an ever developing phoenix of knowledge that proves and disproves itself perpetually. What we were sure of as teenagers, we laugh at now etc.

Life is essentially a process of going from being more wrong, to less so.

And when we can find acceptance of that, acceptance in the mystery, in being disproved over and over again, being wrong becomes less bruising and more interesting. A catalyst for growth, for change and a dissolving of the ego.

So here’s to the journey from being more wrong to less wrong. Let it be interesting, uncomfortable and growth inducing.