31 October 2011

The Worthlessness of Should

If you want to get to New York, it does little good to reiterate that you should be in New York. The first step is knowing where you are and accepting that, because how you go about getting to New York depends entirely on where you are.

This seems the paradox of change. Nothing changes until or unless you first accept where you are. You can't find your way to New York if you start out denying that you're in Florida.

And here is another curious bit about this acceptance. Not only can you start with acceptance of where you are as a starting point, you might - as you look at it for what it is rather than in light of what it should be - you might just realize that there is nothing wrong with being in Florida.

The paradox, then, is that only people who are accepting of what is can change what is.

Or so it seems to me.

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