LEAVE THINGS ALONE
+SHOULDER UPDATE
[A friend recommended Baltasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom. Gracian was a Spanish scholar of the 17th century who set forth a series of maxims for ethical action. From time to time I'll write about one of his maxims.]
Gracian teaches that most disturbances will be solved by waiting for things to settle. He likens disturbance in human affairs to a muddy pool, where intervention will likely make things worse and waiting will enable the pool to clear itself. To some extent, I reject this advice because I fear it may lead to passivity when activity is required, it may excuse inaction when action is required, it may bring us to allowing situations to worsen when early intervention could help. But on some level, I understand and accept Gracian's advice: There are many situations where intervention makes things worse, where problems would solve themselves if we had the patience to wait quietly on the sidelines, where action adds fuel to the fire of disturbances.
I think of various personal situations where, for example, one party demanded a decision, delivered an ultimatum, refused to allow the other party time to think, and the result was the end of a relationship, a personal loss to both parties, a sad end to what could have become something lasting and beneficial to both parties. Impatience, insecurity, self-righteousness- something pushes us to seek conclusions before the situation is ripe. People's thought processes move at different paces. Often, the desire for clarity leads to termination of relationships where letting time pass would lead to clarity.
Similarly, in many situations, the desire to make a decision quickly often leads to the wrong decision. Because the facts are unclear, because events change the basis for decision, because haste often leads to poor thought, a speedy decision often turns out wrong. It's human nature to want to be decisive, to move on to other issues, but where clarity is needed, why not wait for things to settle?
A final example, one I've sadly seen several times, comes from the public press. It happens too many times that a public figure or an unpopular figure is accused of wrongdoing and we all (for I'm guilty of this as well) assume guilt. We jump to conclusions before the facts are in, we don't wait for clarity. When we later, as often happens, find out we were wrong, we go on with our lives while the accused's life is ruined or, at best, seriously harmed. We should have thought about Gracian's teaching in the first place.
[Earlier I thought my shoulder injury would be a temporary annoyance. I soon found that surgical correction was needed. I had the surgery this past Thursday. I'm typing with one hand at the moment. If there is any delay in my weekly columns for awhile that's the reason. ]
2-4-02
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