Contemplations

Keeping an open mind. A good philosophy? In general. But like most things, successful execution is tricky.

Keeping an open mind does not necessitate indecision or being "wishy-washy" with your choices and decisions. An open mind is the the ability and willingness to process new information on which to make better, future decisions.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"

-- Aristotle

When confronted with new information or a new idea, keeping an open mind does not mean that you accept the possibility or validity of this idea, keeping an open mind means that you will consider the possibility that it is valid. You have a choice of whether or not to accept or reject (or remain undecided about) this information. But keeping an open mind means that once more new information is received, you may choose to revisit old ideas and re-evaluate them. Choice isn't a single fork in the road of life. If you find that you have wandered off course, you can correct it at the next branch in the road... so long as you keep an open mind.

Keeping with this metaphor, your destination is not locked by the path you are travelling on (the same path can lead to many places). Likewise, your path is not locked by your intended destination (many paths can lead to the same place). You can change either the path or the destination, the trick is deciding what to change and when.

Or maybe the trick is realizing that neither the path nor the destination are as important as the journey itself, or how you choose to travel down said path, because, really, that's where all of your time will be spent.

I'm not sure of much, but I think I'll travel the next leg of my journey with a book in my bag, a song in my head, and a skip in my step. A book to learn from because I'm afraid of people. A song in my head to keep me occupied and my thoughts off of you. And a skip in my step to hurry me away from the past. I'm a coward; I don't want to travel alone anymore, but I believe that I will.