Whether you are taking the Dave Ramsey plunge or trying a new diet, revolutionizing your lifestyle to revolutionize yourself is all the rage in this modern era of ours, but I wonder if we have it backwards? There's nothing wrong with eating better (me) or sticking with a workout plan (the hubby) or getting out of debt or getting a better job or moving to a better neighborhood or spending less time in the web-o-sphere, all of those are laudable accomplishments and may really change your life, but trying to change yourself, who you are as a person, that someone you become when no one is watching, by trying to change external things like diet, exercise, career, location, relationships...isn't going to do all that much for who you really are.
You can get that gender transition surgery or go see a psychiatrist or dye your hair or lose weight or identify as a howler monkey or go back to college or start a non-profit or go off the grid or whatever, but it isn't going to change who you are. Contrary to popular belief, you were not born 'this way' neither will you stay 'this way,' you are a dynamic individual, different now than when you went to bed last night and you'll be different tomorrow than you are today. Every thought, word, and action is slowly, think glacial here, changing you, for better or worse. So if you want to start being a better person you just start saying, acting, and thinking better things, right? Maybe, the question is, what are 'better things?'
Modern thinkers (why do I want to put quotes around that!) would have us believe we must be tolerant, open-minded, accepting of others (except those who don't believe as the modern thinkers do) but a quote I saw attributed to G.K. Chesterton comes to mind: 'don't be so open-minded your brains fall out.' Be polite, kind, and respectful of all people, no matter what they believe?, by all means, yes!, but just because I don't happen to agree with you doesn't mean I hate or disrespect you, no one can agree on everything, be it colors or pizza toppings. I miss the old days of 'agree to disagree,' instead it seems like everyone is ready to pummel everyone else over the silliest things.
Let's skip the political minefield of 'tolerance' and try some other measure of 'better things.' Food? Organic, paleo, gluten free, non-gmo, vegan...ugh, that's no better! Environmentalism...no! The weather? Floods, blizzards, wildfires, hurricanes...this is not a good time for even that discussion. So what is good and right and true? How can we become better if we can't even define it? And no, defining it for ourselves doesn't get us anywhere, the 'all chocolate diet' of my preference isn't going to fly in real life, no matter how much I want to believe that it is true. Which leaves us with one big huge mess, maybe going on a diet is the only way to improve oneself, at least physically we have some consensus on what's desirable, just look at those models...ugh, nothing is safe!
The moderns have totally destroyed rational thought, thanks grandma! Perhaps we should go back in time a hundred years or more and figure out what was good back then? But we can't talk to anyone about it, or can we? Go exhume Jane Austen or one of the Brontes or Louisa May Alcott and see what they think upon the matter, no one is more qualified! How you ask? Just dig into a great book and enjoy a little Sense with your addled Sensibilities! If you want to change that inner person, a steady diet of classic literature is just the thing, it's even gluten free, enjoy!
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