There’s a tool for just about everything tucked away in a Swiss Army Knife. But having more tools comes at a price of space. Adding more tools necessitates a wider case to house them. One could imagine a “knife” with tools numerous enough to fill the bed of a pickup truck. Fortunately, we don’t need much space for our life tools. Just a head, some distributed nerves, and the appropriate body structures. And, unlike a Swiss Army Knife so jammed with tools that it becomes unwieldy, our life tool holder doesn’t have to get larger. We pack more into the same space—with some exceptions.
One tool that never seems to fit easily into our case is the one that extricates us from philosophical stands we have long held but that we now doubt. Life’s tools never seem to be sufficient for the bind that former assumptions and beliefs impose on us. However, if such a tool exists, it does work better on us than it does on others. Once we associate a philosophical (or religious, political, or social) position with someone, we have difficulty finding in our Mental Swiss Army Knife a tool that works to free that person from the pigeonhole. Our attitude on accepting change in others is typically “Once you’re in, you’re in.” We accept change in ourselves but have difficulty accepting change in others.
Are we all too busy playing with the knife’s tools to find the one essential to accepting change in others? Once an alcoholic; always an alcoholic. Once a drug addict; always a drug addict. Once a criminal; always a criminal. Once…; always….
It’s time to get a bigger “knife,” to add tools of understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness that we can readily access. And it’s time to use the appropriate tool to extricate others from the little hole of thinking or behavior into which we believe they belong.
What’s the sense of owning a Mental Swiss Army Knife if we use it only reluctantly or fail to use its tools to help others?
One tool that never seems to fit easily into our case is the one that extricates us from philosophical stands we have long held but that we now doubt. Life’s tools never seem to be sufficient for the bind that former assumptions and beliefs impose on us. However, if such a tool exists, it does work better on us than it does on others. Once we associate a philosophical (or religious, political, or social) position with someone, we have difficulty finding in our Mental Swiss Army Knife a tool that works to free that person from the pigeonhole. Our attitude on accepting change in others is typically “Once you’re in, you’re in.” We accept change in ourselves but have difficulty accepting change in others.
Are we all too busy playing with the knife’s tools to find the one essential to accepting change in others? Once an alcoholic; always an alcoholic. Once a drug addict; always a drug addict. Once a criminal; always a criminal. Once…; always….
It’s time to get a bigger “knife,” to add tools of understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness that we can readily access. And it’s time to use the appropriate tool to extricate others from the little hole of thinking or behavior into which we believe they belong.
What’s the sense of owning a Mental Swiss Army Knife if we use it only reluctantly or fail to use its tools to help others?
RSS Feed