Another lingering reflection, from a recent Randoms...:
Nearly anyone can be a critic (especially in retrospect) — it is much harder to have the will to think and work at making something better.
Have the habits of the critic ever inhabited you (they have me)?
It is easy to think about things that should be better, especially in the abstract.
It is harder to think about what you want to be better — about what you want to do to make that thing better.
You can almost feel people start backing off between the thinking and the doing parts.
But, it is actually a little more helpful to ask, what do I want to be better?
This changes things up a bit. It makes me choose something. It requires something of me. Just thinking doesn't really require much. Being selective and personal is an ask — an ask for a commitment of some kind.
If I can't (or won't) make a choice about what I want to be better, then I'm mostly just throwing shade.
Take refugees, for example; I may think there is a problem with the refugee crisis. I wouldn't be wrong. But, do I want to do anything about it?
At some point, the ground between the hypothetical and real change for the better has to be covered with the will (actual effort).
I can't do this for everything either; so, I'm going to have to pick the things I want to be better.
So, what do I want to be better?
What am I going to do about it?
