Laotze's Dialogues

Tag: progressive improvement

  • Repetition to make what we know useful

    We know fire burns, yet we extend our fingers reaching for the flames.

    We know something is bad for us, or for the things we care about, or we know some things may be beneficial. Despite this, we fail to act on such notions. Why do we ignore the things we believe?

    On one side, we have what we presume to know; on the other, there is its understanding. To make something meaningful out of what we have, we will use repetition to close the gap created by inexperience, ambiguity, or wear.

    The problem with repetition

    Repeating could be dull.

    I’m not a fan of rereading a story, re-watching a series, or watching a movie.

    When we first encounter a plot, everything is possible; The hero could turn out to be corrupt, the insignificant side character the puppeteer pulling the main narrative from the shadows, the dead may not be so, every detail could be a tiny clue left by the creator for what is coming.

    As a result, we don’t put down the book; we play the next chapter.

    However, once the story comes to an end, characters and events are fixed; they can’t take a different path.

    The magic seems lost.

    A part of us

    Regardless of this impression, repetition is inevitable if we want to make something part of us.

    In writing, we can recognize the elegance with which a message arrives, its clarity, how clever the word arrangement is, and how cunning it is to make readers discover by themselves what you unobtrusively presented as a writer.

    Identifying those accomplishments is a start.

    However, evoking them requires practice, trial and error, it requires that we find what works and what does not, and do the thing over and over again.

    We are drawing a line between knowing and understanding.

    Use it, or lose it

    We must make something out of what we have; a skill, a yearning, or some other resource.

    Otherwise, like a plant that has not been watered, it will lose strength and wither.

    Food goes stale and blades dull,

    minds stagnate,

    skills rust,

    ideas dim.

    What good would they do if never used?

    What good would they do if, when needed, they are unfit?

    Practicing enables us to stay fresh, sharp, and active. Employing what we have opens our eyes to context, proportions, and intricate details. When faced with a challenge, we can recognize patterns and draw solutions from our own resources.

    Same story, different eyes

    Anything would be dull for the wrong eyes; anything has beauty in the right ones.

    The story will not change its words nor its denouement. Yet, its magic remains, for that is not the same story nor we the same man.

    The words that once sounded sweet turn sour, knowing betrayal lies behind them. The characters’ tragedy and despair magnify their impending victory. The line between black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, is a lot harder to tell apart.

    Our familiarity with the story enables us to deepen our understanding of its world and forge stronger bonds with its characters and ideas.

    Use what you have

    We don’t ignore what we know; it simply is rust, too green, or clouded by circumstances.

    To combat this, we must put to use whatever we have. That way, it will become part of us. We have to do this not only once, but reiterate on the same activity, skill, lesson, or concept.

    There is beauty in the cycle of forgetting and rediscovering. We forget, even if it is simple, sometimes because of it. Then, we come across a curious sensation; something that is not new, but not entirely familiar.

    Make something out of what you have, again and again, and enjoy the small bits you rediscover.

  • Soundness of mind inspired by shoes

    We overlook shoes, but they keep us from the unknown hardships of our surroundings, from the unexpected.

    When we stop to consider their function, we can’t help but wonder, where are the shoes for our minds?

    The menace such a garment will shield us from doesn’t scratch at our skin nor cause blisters. The threats are more subtle, which makes them all the more perilous.

    Seemingly mundane object

    We put them on daily without much thinking, and we take them for granted. However, shoes are a way to explore the world without worrying about all the difficulties that lie ahead.

    The antagonist does not matter; spikes, rocks, animals, mud, sand, or water. We are going to be well-protected.

    What madness would be pretending to break every stone, flattening every hill, drying every puddle, to take a stroll.

    What if we apply the concept of a shoe to more abstract foes?

    Mental shoes

    The mind has its perils.

    Fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, rumination, desires, traps naturally created by the world, and the ones we are the very authors of.

    If flattening every hill sounded mad, what could we make of extinguishing every desire? Isn’t it foolish to never feel fright?

    Our answer lies in shoes. Instead of protection from physical harm, mental shoes would make sure that whatever we happen to come across, we surmount it.

    An admirable mind

    The practical equivalent of mental shoes would be a sound mind.

    By no means will such a mind be exempt from defeat, but it is resilient.

    It is prone to sickness, but it is always on the lookout for a cure.

    When drowning, it learns to swim by necessity.

    It will burn alive, but it comes back from the ashes.

    When lost, it knows how to find itself.

    Despite any puddle, hill, rock, or spike, it adapts. We must develop this soundness. Our predictions are as concise as our claims as to where lightning will strike next. We can’t be certain, nor do we have to. The only way is to equip ourselves and learn as we go.

    Being our designers and tailors

    Each of us has a different nature, blessings, and curses.

    To live, we will need different traits. Some of us will have to toughen up, others to become soft. As we lack the option to buy a brand new mind, we will have to be designers of our own, the ones who make the stitches, the ones who say if it’s a right or wrong fit.

    We will draw inspiration from authors, films, people, experiences, stories, and anything else we find meaningful. We have our lifetime to pull ideas from and grow.

    Ultimately, the responsibility of being well-equipped and up to the challenge lies with us.

  • Falling in love with mistakes

    I’d like us to discuss mistakes, which we may regard as common, but also as stepping stones on our path to achieving our goals.

    However, what about those moments when the perceived danger of failing is paralyzing and renders our actions dissonant?

    On those occasions, I admit it is difficult to conceive the idea of falling in love with them.

    Then I’m going to examine our options, facing our tendency toward errors, or ignoring it—the choice, as much as the consequences are ours. As important as such a topic is, we should consider being kinder toward ourselves the times things produce an unintentional result.

    I believe you would agree if I say that errors are necessary, that they represent the foundation of our progress, the building blocks that draw us closer to perfection, even if it is only an ideal.

    So, we learn that if we use too much heat, we will burn the meat; too much water on plants would drown them, too little and they would wither.

    We adjust whatever we happen to be doing.

    Granting we are on the same page regarding errors, I find it troubling that we may not apply such ideas when it comes to things that we care about.

    We may hide them, bury them, try to make them disappear. Like an awful wound, we flinch instinctively at the mere thought of anything touching the cut.

    Then I ask myself, how are we supposed to learn?

    We have options.

    We could avoid such pain by any preferred means, but we would risk falling into the same mistakes again and missing all its beauty when we turn our backs.

    In trying to make the lurking shadows disappear, we would extinguish the light, and everything would be darkness.

    Another option is to have courage. The valor to accept that what is done is done, that there is no way we could have done it differently, and with such a nagging reality accept our proness to mistakes.

    I know that what we have in our hands is a matter of great importance; what we feel when we fail is proof enough of that. But I’d like us to explore the possibility that we may not have to be that severe.

    What if we approach this more like a playground, than a battlefield?

    When thrust with an imaginary sword, grunt, go to the ground, and make your best performance. When the game is off, you can get up unharmed. I know that it may seem like a real wound, but the more we practice the easier it gets to perform, and the less scary to be wrong.

    The ideal we should strive for would be falling in love with our errors.

    They are the very reason for our growth, someday they will be the source of laughter and joy, a way to give an example to someone very dear to us, they may take us to places we never imagined, and they may yield results we never conceived.

    The mistakes, and more importantly what we do with them, are part of who we are. Thus, I’d like us to get to work.

    Do it.

    Do it more.

    Do it better.

    Fail.

    Fail better.