Endangered Thinking
It’s been calculated that 40% of all organisms on our planet are under threat.
I put that sentence by itself, because we sometimes read a sentence too quickly to have it hit us as deeply as it could. It means 2 out of every 5 things out there are in danger of becoming a memory. It’s staggering.
Now this is not going to become another rant about how horrible we are when it comes to our planet (although we shouldn’t let ourselves off that hook – actually, we can’t afford to let ourselves off that hook). Instead, I want to talk about ‘rareness’ or ‘exclusiveness’ or ‘missing-ness’.
It’s a fact of our history that ‘stuff’ gets ‘dropped’ along the way. It’s not only true of species from the natural world, but it’s also true of the thought-pool you carry with you in your head. Some of what gets lost is anecdotal and has low-significance. On the other hand, some of what gets lost is worth holding on to – and it could lead to a much-improved future. It’s why I journal. I have 20 years worth of ‘research’ on who I am, how life works and what really matters. Every day I go to my bookmark as I re-read these notes so that I can build on the past, push deeper where it matters and side step the need to learn the same lessons over and over. Every day I am surprised at some life-lesson or insight that was ‘under threat’ of disappearing from my daily awareness.
What are the endangered insights in your own thinking? What insights and life-lessons are at risk of sinking into the past only to repeat themselves by accident at some point in the future? Any step which takes us past ‘casual remembering’ or taking our head space for granted is deeply worth taking. It doesn’t matter if it’s a journal or a single page we look at every morning or even just a quote or two.
Our current series, “Thoughts for the Open Road”, takes us all the way to the end of August. Starting with launch week on Sunday September 7th, we’re going to be looking at a series of endangered thoughts and insights which may have ‘gone missing’ somewhere along the way. It’s something you won’t want to miss.
Join us on Sunday or tune into the podcast through the week.
Have a great weekend,
Chris
posted by DSW at
4:38 PM
2 Comments:
some important lessons, for me, have only become apparent long after the incidents have passed. They are important to record somewhere and, when I re-read them, have found that sometimes i am continuing to make the same mistakes anyway.
By
Anonymous, at 8:59 PM
I went hiking the other day and got lost, well not lost just directionally confused. We were using a map only to discover 4 km in that we were on the wrong trail. Along the way we noticed discrepancies with the map and our observations but assumed that things changed since the map was made or that we just missed an important landmarks as our minds wondered. Eventually, as the grade continued to increase and our breathing became more laboured, we begin to suspect something was wrong. Still it was only when we came to a sign that we acknowledged that we were on the wrong trail.
Whenever the map disagreed with our observations we rejected the observation and continued to follow the map. We were so set on a destination that we thought we new that we filtered out the information that did not fit. we simply did not see it or did not trust it until we saw the sign post that told us we were wrong.
“It seems that seeing is not believing, believing is seeing.” R.M. Pirsig
“It’s a fact of our history that ‘stuff’ gets ‘dropped’ along the way.”
Our culture is built on patterns based on past “fact” which are extremely selective. When a new fact comes in that does not fit the pattern we don’t’ usually throw out the pattern, we throw out the fact. A contradictory fact has to keep hammering and hammering before someone might come along who can see it and then point it out to others. (- R.M. Pirsig) (we don’t tend to like these people)
“What are the endangered insights in your own thinking?” We need to be able to see before we know what to let go of and what to hang on to, we don’t see because were not looking, not looking because we don’t know that something is there and or is outside our expectations.
In today’s message Jeremy talked about how animals only see what they need to see to survive and then the question Jesus asked his disciples “Who do they say I am? Who do you think I am”? The animals being “told” what to see, while we get to “see”, Christ being interested in what we see/in us. But I began to wonder did I come to church for “survival”? Was I depending on a map or the “facts” along the trail?
Prologue to the hike:
Even though the days plan was for a light hike we continued on the trail we had inadvertently taken. This was a trail we would never had thought we were capable of doing and though it was much more strenuous then we liked at times but at the end we were rewarded with a great view of the mountains and a hiking experience and sense of accomplishment I will not like to forget.
By
Anonymous, at 10:32 PM
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