Get your facts straight

Theory vs. Fact

A few years ago I took a personality survey to determine what type of personality I had. I was skeptical about these types of things and began the activity with a cynical attitude. After all of the questions were answered, I realized that the survey certainly had me for the most part, accurately identified.
At the beginning I felt that all the parameters were based on theory rather than facts. At the end, I realized that someone possibly had a theory and then gathered relevant facts and could determine through a set of questions and their answers, the characteristics that made up certain predominant personality traits. Thus by surveying people and getting honest answers, someone could determine how someone would generally behave. (More on this later)
As we go through our lives it is important that we understand that much of what we study or learn is based upon one or the other. We don’t want to be misled by theory. We can also be misled by facts distorted or misrepresented or taken out of context.
For instance let us consider the following: In our present time we see almost on every hand, old customs and ideas being challenged. What has worked for centuries and has proved good and useful is now being challenged with so called progressive ideas. Now I for one am not against being progressive in terms of moving forward, or raising our level of understanding and knowledge.
I for one think this is a forever or eternal part of our very existence.
But to just advocate progressiveness on unsound or non factual theories is regressive rather than progressive in nature. Instead of moving our society upward we will digress to a lower level.
In the study of history it is not hard to see a pattern of growth and achievement only to be followed by period of social upheaval and or destruction or unrest. If we are not careful we can continue this cycle, rather than learn from it and really move the whole world upward and forward.
As we are sitting here in Clay Springs we might wonder what we can do here in this little place to accomplish so great a task. Well we really can make our influence felt by just doing those things that we already know will make a difference right here in this little part of the world. If we can make this little part better then won’t we have influenced a part of the whole? I think so! Yes by doing what we know to have been factually realistic in the past, will also work in the future. Yes we can explore new ideas and if they prove to be factual and true, it will work for the betterment of mankind. If we plant corn we can expect corn to come if we nurture it and follow proven theories. We cannot expect to always have corn if we do not plant or do plant and try unproved practices. If no corn is planted there will eventually be no corn chips.

Good Thinking!

Benjamin Franklin said, “The foundation of all happiness is thinking rightly.” We spend our whole lives sorting out, what is ‘thinking rightly’? From the time we are infants and as we age, we are constantly evaluating and rationalizing things. For the most part we can only determine what is ‘right’ from our personal experiences and our observations and from the learning and wisdom we have attained. I think the one of the keys to ‘thinking right’ is to feed our minds. Read books, listening to people and searching and pondering upon positive information will help provide us with stimulation to ‘good thinking’. From our births we are in what I call ‘the discovery mode’. It should never stop. Isn’t it a wonderful thing? Isn’t it marvelous to behold little children discovering new things? Even when we are older and maybe tend to consider that we have accomplished our work, the family is raised and we are retired, we are still discovering new things about ourselves, our health, our relationship with others, etc. There is something that attends ‘good thinking’ and although intangible, is a powerful influence upon good thinking which leads to good behavior. A person can feel its effect upon him/herself and even those around them. We are not alone!