Today I realized that I have an addiction. My drug increases my heart-rate, it compels my mind, it leave me high for hours after.
My drug is discussion. Not small talk about the weather. Real honest discussion.
Let's debate about politics. Let's challenge each other's religious views. Let's push each other towards intellect. Let's feed of the energy of each other's passions. Let's combine facts and opinion and form conclusions about the world we live in.
This is my high.
The moment when you are in such intense discussion that the whole class skips lunch to continue the seminar. Or when a professor challenges your statement and then say "Don't stop. Keep thinking". The time when friends really challenge one another to expand their world view; or to defend it.
I don't love this because I'm always right. In fact it's the opposite. I love when I'm wrong. Because it is when I am wrong that I learn. I want people to point out the fallacies in my logic, to tell me facts I didn't know, to introduce me to their passions, and to make me question what I took to be the correct opinion when it might just be an opinion.
And I hope I can sometimes play the same roles for others.
This is an addiction I hope I never lose. I pray that people continue to challenge me intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. I pray that I never lose the courage to challenge others. And most of all I pray that I will keep an open mind so that when I am proved wrong it generates change in me rather than falling on deaf ears.
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