I've been wrong a lot in my life. And especially in the past few weeks. It's almost as if someone or something is trying to teach me a lesson.

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Perhaps it's just the natural result of my pre-conceived notions bumping up against reality in a fashion more frequent and noticeable than usual. Either way, suffice it to say I've had a bit more humble pie than I usually care for this past month.

Whether it be drunkenly assuming a whole restaurant is racist, calling out a fellow anarchist for an argument he never made, or posting what seems now to me to be a questionable study on vaccines (my stance hasn't changed, and I haven't decided the study is garbage, but new info from @apsu requires further examination), it has been coming to me over and over again this month to:

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1. Be nice. That is to say, be human, to others,

AND

2. Shut the fuck up and think for a second before speaking.

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I remember being in the bathroom at my friend's bar once, and, though inebriated (maybe because inebriated), I was able to see something in a flash that has never left me.

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It wasn't something I was entirely unfamiliar with, as I had felt it--or intimations of it, at least--before, so I know it was not simply a product of being chemically altered. It was as if everything dropped away, and I could see everything all at the same time. It was nothing "mystical" and no multi-limbed elephant gods descended upon me.

I just had this feeling of letting everything go--all of my assumptions, all of my beliefs, all of my fears, all of my anger, doubt, and confusion. I just let myself be there. In a moment everything in that bathroom changed. The deep green of the fake, framed fern hanging on the wall became almost a living color buzzing with energy and life. I looked up at the ceiling and knew I knew nothing, but simultaneously felt at that exact moment that I was capable of understanding anything.

It was really...shocking. I felt that when we "know nothing," we are then predisposed to see everything. Conversely, when we are predisposed to see a certain pattern or agenda, that pattern or agenda is usually what we will "see." I have stories about this, too, where I have actually "seen" things that I now know were not there, such as people standing on the side of the road, which turned out to be poles and signs (my mind filling in the missing info, informed by my expectations). This generalization and "pattern filling" is a useful survival mechanism, and life would be impossible without it, but it is of critical importance to remember its limits and its weaknesses.

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So what's your point, "Dr. Wayne Dyer"?

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Look this isn't some mystical shit. It is really simple. I am just writing this for me. Putting my thoughts down. I am seeing more and more, recently, the importance of being humble, and by "humble" I mean, open to being wrong, and willing to adjust views in light of new evidence. Perhaps a synonym for "humble" here, in my intended meaning, would be "scientific."

And what goes with that, for me, is not judging things, ideas, or people too quickly if I have a choice in the matter. Someone you think is your enemy may well be so. But, you could also be wrong. Being "wrong" is something so many people, including myself, are so afraid of. But why? What an honorable thing to fuck up and then be willing to say "I was wrong. Fuck. I'm sorry." What an honorable thing to say "Huh. I didn't know that. Now I've learned something. Thanks."

It's also honorable to stand firm when you are on the side of reality, property, and justice, and to be fucking vicious about it if it is being threatened. But I don't want the "sports team mentality" to have any say in who I am. I noticed recently on Facebook that I was tempted to "like" comments certain friends had made even if I did not necessarily agree with them, in the course of a debate. Why? They had been on "my side" earlier in the debate. I have decided my only "side" from now on, should be the "side" of what is.

Peace.

~KafkA

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Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)