Assess the Stupidity

There's a quick line in Far and Away that comes to mind as I lead off this topic. It's when Joseph is in the middle of a dual with Steven Chase, knowing very little of guns, and Shannon rides a wagon into the area and calls for him to get in the back. Joseph in his pride tells her to go away, and Shannon says, "Assess your stupidity, lad."

    There is a wide range of songs that speaks of using your head to guard your heart... like dozens of them in every genre. It makes sense, the heart can give us "rose colored glasses" that ig ore red flags and get us into trouble. Even the Bible warns, "The heart is deceitful above all things," which is a little too strong, but it's a good warning to test your feelings with facts from time to time. This is true in romance and a good reminder as we approach valentine's day, named after a martyr and a massacre. But, it's also true for any plan or road that you follow.

    Years and years ago...maybe a decade.. I had a meme I shared of a young girl mixing chemicals in science and words I added that said, "It isn't that it isn't." I have also noted several times something that is appropriate, here. It was when I worked at IBM, and they said Watson learned from mistakes "like humans do," which made me laugh, because we are often slow to do so.

    But, to bring all this together, it is a good thing to have the courage to try new things. Thomas Edison kept trying new things til the light bulb was born. But, we have to have the wisdom to "Assess the stupidity" of wrong choices, or we will walk around daily feeling like a failure and trying to grow something in rocky ground. If we do learn, that would be the first step towards a path that might lead to a better way.

    Give your attempts the time to fully be explored and see if it can work some other way. But, when you keep seeing the same endings that reinforce that path as incompatible with your dreams, have the self esteem to stand on your own if need be for a little while and venture into the unknown with hope, because hope is most definitely better than stupidity and despair.