Wits Growing Sharper
One day, Pablo Picasso was sitting in a Paris cafe and sketching something on a small napkin.
Once he was done, a secret admirer recognized him,
approached him and asked whether he could have that napkin.
“Sure,” Picasso answered. “20,000 francs and it is yours.”
“20,000 francs? It took you five minutes to draw this.”
“No, no, no, it took me more than 40 years.”
Consider our tendency to automatically dismiss someone who is not a member of our "tribe." It's a stage we all go through but many get stuck there. The older I get, the less I get caught in this trap...but it still happens from time to time (especially when sleep deprived).
Next, once we start transcending that "Us vs. Them" stage, we start automatically dismissing the "Losers" and admiring the "Winners." If the people we see are losing compared to us, it's their fault and they need to suck it up and work harder...or stop being so stupid...or just go back where they came from.
And then we transcend that stage and automatically dismiss anyone who doesn't see it's wrong to dismiss anyone who is different/not in our tribe, or not a "winner" according to conventional wisdom. Of course, we're blind to that contradiction and the fact we're still automatically dismissing people.
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts, English author and playwright, in "A Shadow Passes," 1919
Thankfully, I'm experiencing more magic these days thanks to Ken Wilber's Integral philosophy, among other great thinkers I've come across. It's taken at least 40 years.
They really help find the signal in all the noise.
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