Life after the fall

Most depictions of struggle end stop at the first victory or loss. Movies about politics usually end with the lead winning the election. Love stories end with marriage.

The problem is that the real struggle comes after victory and the real test of character comes after defeat.

Multi-Path Thinking. Against the stranger.

Embrace the Paradox

Be of two minds

You can't know where a path leads until you walk it.

[Related to] Be many people

It's said that it's difficult to understand an ideology from the outside. This is true, although I have difficulty explaining why, and I won't attempt to do so here. What's the solution? Is it to stick to your own beliefs, your own ideology and pardgrim? No. To do so is to abandon the search for truth and efficiency. Is the blindly accept another ideology? No. To do so is just as pointless. What, then, is the correct course of action?

I have seen and heard many advocate that it is wise to try out different beliefs, to give yourself to them entirely and without hesitation. To go from one to another until you understand them all. I think this is difficult given the limited time we have in our lives and the number of belief systems we must choose between. I also think that, whenever you are within one belief, you loose the ability to judge others.

Another way is to go down no path. To be a stranger to all and in doing so step closer to reality. This is a path I value, but one which is inordinately difficult to follow, both in action and in thought. Your community shapes you. Even if you can shrug off this, your upbringing shaped who you are and you cannot shrug off yourself.

A third way is to walk down many paths. To adopt multiple belief systems, even when they conflict. Not only to be able to look at the world through many lenses, but to let those lenses shape you into many different people who you can step between at will. Not to be no-one, but rather to be everyone.

Walking down different paths at the same time is difficulty. Wear a mask long enough, and it consumes you. Be wary of letting one path come to own you. Be equally wary of giving yourself to no path and hence learning nothing.

Remember, small minds cannot hold two skies.