Coffeehouse Thoughts #10

With a healthy dose of Urth Caffe’s “Old Grandpa” in my cup I am ready to start my thoughts of the day.

Acceptance vs. Settling

It has been established that acceptance is a key concept in avoiding angst in our lives. It probably has something to do with a survival adaptation. Think about a monkey smallish in stature compared to the average of its troop. It probably makes sense to him to stop challenging the big alfa male. Accepting his situation and Settling for his current position equates to his survival.

We are of course the most advanced of the primates. We have moved beyond the precept of “the physically strongest shall rule”. There are so many layers to our civilization, that we can all contribute. We can not only “contribute” but can even achieve greatness through our use of intelligence, creativity and perseverance.

Acceptance plays an important role in our avoidance of stress and the achievement of happiness and contentment. However, we do not need to, nor should we “settle”. To me “settling” means to go beyond acceptance and give up on our Self-actualizing activity.

We all know that our society is not perfect or ideal. However most of us just settle for it and fit into some “good enough” cog in the machinery of society. Our civilization has made its sharply defined jumps or steps upward because certain individuals refused to settle for the status quo.

Who has done these things? The very famous such as Einstein, Lincoln, Aristotle, Newton, Pastuer, Curie, Gandhi and Mandela of course spring to mind. However there are many others who contributed to improving our society on other levels. I’m thinking of more unassuming folks who did not settle for what society had given them, whether it was their intention to make a grand contribution or not.

Not settling can be as simple as not giving up your seat on a bus when an unjust law dictates that you do so. Thank you Irene Morgan, Sarah Keys, Rosa Parks and others.

A healthy attitude is to accept the present moment as it is while striving to improve your experience. “Accepting” allows one to avoid negative emotions spurred by a present reality. This frees the mind for making plans and taking action to improve your personal world…..and ours.

My writing buddy, Momo-chan