A warrior must be open to all possibilities. It can be a mistake to think that what we know is right and what others know is wrong. Here’s a story to illustrate. There was once a farmer whose horse got loose and ran away. His neighbors came over and said, “This is bad.” The farmer merely replies, “How do you know?” A week later, the horse returns with other horses. His neighbors came over and said, “This is great.” But the farmer again replies, “How do you know?” The next day while trying to tame one of the horses, the farmer’s son falls and breaks his leg. Again, his neighbors came over and said, “This is bad.” The farmer again replies, “How do you know?” A little while later, soldiers came to conscript soldiers for battle, but they don’t take the farmer’s son because of his broken leg. Happily, the neighbors say, “This is wonderful” and again the farmer replies, “How do you know?” It is easy for something to be “logical” to us because we base it upon our own experiences, biases and beliefs. The truth of the matter is that most things are much more complex and mysterious than what we “know.” Issac Asimov, in his essay The Relativity of Wrong, wrote, “The basic trouble, you see, is that people think that ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are absolute; that everything that isn't perfectly and completely right is totally and equally wrong. However, I don't think that's so. It seems to me that right and wrong are fuzzy concepts…” Rather than assigning something as right or wrong, Asimov asserts that they are merely “incomplete” because what we “think” we know is solely based upon our own perception. This doesn’t mean that we should just become nihilists. A warrior needs to be open to other possibilities because the landscape of battle and life change rapidly. Thus, a warrior’s success comes from their ability to be fluid and realize that there are other possibilities. A warrior’s success comes from their ability to be open to any and all possibilities.
Today’s goal: What things in your life are you holding firm to? Do you really know it for sure?