I
Welcome to a Mindful Monkey. Before diving in, make sure you’ve check out the about page.
Now, first thing first: why write?
On one level, writing forces you to think through your thoughts more thoroughly. A ridiculously large percentage of the ideas and beliefs we use to navigate life receive little critical thought.
I love my dog. She sits on command; I should buy her treats.
By writing and formalizing them, you (hopefully) see how flimsy they might be.
But wait- there’s that homeless person I pass on my way home every day… and my friend is raising money for her elementary school classroom because she’s given a laughable amount of money to fund her curriculum and teach the minds of society's future... should my money go to other things?
Hopefully, this translates into personal growth.
My dog can’t tell the difference between a food scrap and a 5 dollar raw hide, maybe I shouldn’t buy those treats…
But let’s be honest. It’s pretty common to do Olympic level mental gymnastics in order to make our beliefs and thoughts seem logical and coherent in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
I can’t fix all the problems out there in the world. That homeless man is at a really inconvenient street corner... And my friend’s kickstarter has raised 70% of its goal already...
The point is not to make a claim on what one 'should' do in this situation. Instead, the point is to highlight how easy it is for thoughts to slip past scrutiny and influence subsequent beliefs, ideas, behaviors, etc. In this instance, it’s a relatively benign situation. 'My dog is cute, I should buy her treats'. If you’d like, change the initial belief.
Democrats are idiots.
Religion is irrational.
My coworkers don't work hard.
I have to go to college to be successful.
Money is important.
Life is incomplete if I don't have a child.
Murder is wrong.
Drugs are dangerous.
No one cares about me.
Banks are evil
Once again, let's avoid making actual value claims about these statements. The point is that our prior assumptions taint the way we see the world; consequently, they taint the way we see these statements. More often than not, these prior beliefs and assumptions deserve more critical analysis than they've been given. It isn’t personal - no one sees the whole picture. We're all just seeing one tiny part of it. The real question is: what do we do when we realize we aren’t seeing the whole picture?
We explore.
We formalize our thoughts and beliefs through writing, conversations, debating, etc.. The hope is that this helps you become aware of the (sometimes gaping) holes in your mental models. If you can suppress that ego-defensive reaction to double down on those holes, you've found a decent way to grow as a person (whatever that means).
In some ways, that is the purpose of this endeavor.
But writing as a way to hash out my thoughts is only half the reason for this blog. It also doubles as a creative outlet. Everyone needs a creative outlet. Creative outlets have a lot of disguises - sports, photography, music, cooking, writing, painting, scientific experimentation. Regardless of the costume, a creative outlet adds meaning to life. It's an escape from the monotonous, routine lifestyle that occurs by default. Without a creative outlet, I can't help but see the symmetry between me and a monkey trained to fetch coconuts. Even a monkey that is highly trained (and for good purposes) is still just a highly trained monkey.
II
So creativity is important. With creativity, comes exploration. With exploration, comes... people getting angry because you've stepped into territory you are not supposed to be in. This brings me to the spirit of everything in this blog - charity. Charity is what is missing in today's echo chamber amplified, polarized world. It's a simple concept.
Charity is:
Remembering that if someone holds a belief that you find utterly ridiculous, it's probably a failure of your understanding
Assuming best intentions
Not forgetting that every person you have a conflict with is not automatically the polar extreme version of what the conflict at hand is about
Charity is not:
Straw-manning someone's argument
Name-calling, feeding your ego with passive-aggressive statements, or permanently dismissing someone because they said something you disagree with.
(I repeat, it is not) A sleight-of-hand way to trick you into being silent in the face of bad ideas
You will gain more from charitable conversations than stingy ones. People on the other side of a debate are there for a reason. The reason is likely not whatever automatically popped into your head at the beginning of the conversation and received no critical analysis. Don't be an Olympic gymnast here. You are guaranteed to be holding some wrong ideas right now, but you don't know which ones are wrong; so be charitable. Plus, (in my experience) life itself is generally more enjoyable when doing so.
Comments are encouraged! I'm not the only one with partially edited thoughts. A general problem with social media is it leads to a dangerously low creation:consumption ratio. Feel free to fix that problem here. Unlike social media, no one will know really who you are based on your 'Substack account'. You can maintain as much anonymity as you want. If it is not on this blog, for your sake, make sure you are keeping that creation:consumption ratio up in some other manner. 'Liking' is a passive act, but commenting is active participation. Life's more fun when you participate in it.
With all of this out of the way, welcome again. Let's start exploring.
In the meantime, tell your friends!