You Could Think Differently

     We learn how to think and we learn what to think. Our thinking is augmented by a language(s) that helps us name and define objects and interpret our experiences. Influential people are a large part of the paperwork of our thinking. They tell us this or that about that or this, and we, for the most part, believe everything they tell us. What child thinks his parents are lying to him about the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy or Santa Claus? Mom and Dad are right. Grandad knows everything about everything, or so we think, and Grandma is simply the wisest person ever. Our ministers know God on a first name basis, and they tell us what to think about Him or Her or Whatever. They also tell us what God thinks of us. Almost without exception we believe everything these God authorities say. Teachers, of course, are right up there with other "know-it-all's". 
     We respect all these pervayors of information, and rightly so. They are conceived to be bearers of truth, albeit their truth. Sometimes their truth is synonomous with the very teachers who taught them. Their truth is not something that Dad told them, it is Dad or Mom or grandma or grandpa or reverend or teacher encapsulated in ideological or conceptual form. Rejecting their truth is like rejecting the very people who taught them that truth.

Then, around the time of pubic hair and pimples, something dangerous begins to happen inside us. As we enter into our adolescent  phase of development, we begin to arrive at some conclusions that are different from our revered teachers. Our newfound conclusions often create quite a "stir" among the previously uncontested enlightenment, or establishment (as we called them in the 60's). We may feel as though we have become the enemy or vice versa. And the "stir" often results in verbal battles and punishment for thinking differently. There can be ourbursts of violence, spanking, hitting and killing. (See Kent State).

*****That kind of rigid thinking and combative behavior is what I refer to as the "Spirit of Fundamentalism", which I will write about in a future blog.*****

     Let it be known that you CAN and you SHOULD change your thinking when old ideas are not working, or old truth begins to make no sense, or when new ideas and truth comes to you. It is always prudent to examine your thinking making sure that it is based on truth, your truth, and not just hearsay or someone else's ideas. You might experience chastishment or resistance from those who may feel threathened by your change. You can be assertive in your resolve to be a Critical Thinker. You can also be gentle and patiently mindful that those resistors have been taught to think certain ways, and perhaps have never considered any other way of looking at it. They may consider their ideas sacredly synonomous with their former teachers.