Please Disagree With Me

May 6

“Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, History

The first order consequence of being disagreed with is discomfort. An entirely unpleasant experience. We take our best ideas like arrows and, notching them against the tautness of our minds, launch them out towards a target—sometimes with hostility, sometimes with love, sometimes simply to prove a point.

And when the arrow comes back to us, neatly marked “return to sender” by the postal worker, we find our intention has not met it’s goal. We are perplexed.

The second order consequence of being disagreed with is typically to disagree back. We are now returning our package to the postal worker, insisting they have done their work incorrectly. We disagree not just with the person, but with their disagreement with us. And given the opportunity, well, it’s disagreement all the way down, a never-ending pattern of friendly or not-so-friendly negation.

But if we let it take it’s course, the third order consequence of disagreement is to discover we do not yet have a total sum picture of reality. The arrow was not the shape we thought it was, the target was not quite the distance we believed, we are being alerted that there is more going on than we previously believed.

This is easy to write on paper, and much harder to bring out of the realm of idealism into reality. Realizing that every disagreement is a tiny green light from the universe, inviting you to discover more about a person, or an idea, or a place, or a belief.

Or—well—you could always disagree with the sentiment. Who knows? We might learn something.

Morning Reading is a daily email to help center yourself, reflect, and prepare for the day. It’s sent with love from your friend, Zach in Austin, Texas. He even drew the logo himself.

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