We often do not see, because of where we’ve been trained to look.
There’s usually one or two things that you are deeply committed to — because the perceived consequences would be too costly, if you weren’t.
Wisdom is often not perceived in the eye of the beholder, especially in the moment.
Why wouldn’t you?
Prior 3 Observations & A Question….
He acts like he has no relatives.
-- An old Indian saying on the worst thing that can be said about a person, from Listen, Learn, and Contribute
Humility is the pathway to knowledge and understanding.
When pride becomes arrogance or conceit, knowledge (and especially understanding) dissipates.
We can certainly see evidence of this at large right now, can't we?
Or, maybe we can't, unless we've first seen it in ourselves.
I must admit, I have seen it in myself. And, the consequence has, in fact, been that I lose both understanding and knowledge. Only when we are humbled (or when we allow ourselves to be humbled), do we seem capable of reversing course and seeing the return of growth of knowledge and understanding again.
More often than once, I have discovered (sometimes quite painfully) that what I thought I knew was happening really wasn't what was happening or, at the very least, all that was happening. As the evidence that that was the case became clear, I had the opportunity to be more curious, more open, more capable of saying I was wrong or limited in my understanding.
For one thing, I simply don't know everything that is happening and that should be the given default in most situations. When I'm pretty sure about something, I still have the option to consider what I might not know about it.
Humility isn't as much about being wrong or embarrassed about not knowing as much as it is about an overall disposition towards what I don't know, rather than simply what I do think I know. Both are involved — being humble allows for that discovery.
There is a difference between losing and failing. Losing reflects the score. Failing reflects our attitude.
-- Simon Sinek
'Poem for the week' -- "Fall":
Fall
Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season
Changes its tense in the long-haired maples
That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves
Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition
With the final remaining cardinals) and
then
Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last
Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground.
At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees
In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager
And the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever
Loping down the center of a wide street and the sun
Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance,
A gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud
Blamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything
Changes and moves in the split second between summer’s
Sprawling past and winter’s hard revision, one moment
Pulling out of the station according to schedule,
Another moment arriving on the next platform.
It
Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away
From their branches and gather slowly at our feet,
Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving
Around us even as its colorful weather moves us,
Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets.
And every year there is a brief, startling moment
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;
It is the changing light of fall
falling on us.
-- Edward Hirsch
A number of implications terminology-wise (besides the topic itself) — gotta get the word 'freedom' in there, too.
And, no surprises here:
The Department of Justice announced that it was charging a grand total of 10 noncitizens with allegedly either registering or voting in the state of Minnesota, over a period of several years. This constitutes, at most, 0.0003% of Minnesota’s active registered voters, based on data from the last federal general election. As the clock ticks down to Election Day, every rushed statement from the administration confirms what we’ve long known: noncitizen voting is infinitesimally rare and already well-prevented by the states.
-- Center for Election Innovation and Research
Fed’s Watchdog Finds No Misconduct or Illegal Activity in Costly Renovations
Other ways of playing fast-and-loose with the truth (at best)
If only (instead of just playing these intimidation games) we could get on with the work of actual governing on the real issues needing attention:
Swiss glaciers lose over 5% of ice volume in 2026 as heat waves, low winter snow accelerate thaw
