More context
We can almost always do with more context. Our perspective is always partial.
After my challenging morning in the surf yesterday, I did my usual trick. It was all me and my lack of skill. Yet, as my surf coach Tony pointed out, the waves have changed. The swell was different. The ones I had been catching had become dumpy. They required a different approach.
It wasn’t all me, or my skill. The context had changed.
Ah, this lesson. We need to get it again and again.
It is the principle of Synergy – the behaviour of the whole cannot be determined by an examination of the parts separately.
I cannot know until I know the whole.
I cannot look at any situation occurring currently on our planet and know it unless I know the whole. The whole includes the rigorous truth of history. The context. The underlying forces and incentives. This applies to wars, poverty, power and business and individual success.
Until I commit to this, my opinion will remain partial and more biased.
To be an expert on anything is to know the whole.
We might learn to set a context for our tightly held opinions. It is more honest to say I have an opinion, but I haven’t really studied the whole context enough to actually know, than to take a stand of righteous superiority about an issue.
I return to the surf, and the lesson continues.
Photo Taken August 24th 2024
