“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” Abraham Lincoln

This quote is, by far, the most challenging for me, but it’s not really where I am going today. Lincoln is absolutely correct in saying that if we would only get to know people better, we might veer away from our original snap judgement. People are rarely who they appear to be at first glance.

The better question to ask ourselves with Lincoln’s quote at our fingertips is: how open-minded can I be? What I have witnessed is that as we get older, the mind starts to close and we feel justified in doing so, which makes it worse! I surmise that we feel, since we have been around the block so to speak, we have the “experience” and “wisdom” to close our mind.

I don’t know about you, but I never want to be close-minded. Being so shuts down original thinking. Fear is generally what feeds the closed mind, its the fear of not wanting to be wrong. An open-minded person is willing to explore his own mind and even find that he’s been wrong about something and self-correct. Yesterday I saw an article in The Atlantic titled “The Problem with ‘Hey guys.'” I heard my mind say, “That’s ridiculous.” I caught my closed mind and said to myself, “Read it!” It was eye-opening. So you might hear a few more “folks” and “y’all” from me! In the end, open or closed—it’s our choice!

Happy Friday!
Beth