When I was a Boy Scout hiking the hills of the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, I learned some rules to live by that I believe to this day. Their beauty lies in their simplicity.
Rule 1: Look Good.
Rule 2: Don’t Die.
Rule 3: Look Good While Dying.
The real genius of this system is the subsequent definition of what it means to look good. To look good can be wearing your safety harness, putting up your bear bag, thinking deep and critically about different things, about being true intellectually, and any number of other positive things. As in, these rules don’t mean much because you can define them to be anything that you want them to be. Perhaps a better, and more legitimate[add comma] exposition of rules that I try to live by in my life starts with the phrase:
Presume Nothing.
I’ve been thinking about this concept a goodly amount here at college. No matter how well you may know someone, you cannot know all their motivations or fulfill all of their expectations. How many miscommunications, rifts, and misunderstandings could have been fixed if we would have been able to leave our preconceived ideas or misconceptions out of the equation. The long and the short of it is that you can’t know what is going on in other people’s heads. This means we ought to give other people the benefit of the doubt – much like we would like to be given. It’s so easy to forget. Other than that, I just try to remember the other half of my motto: Do your work. Don’t be stupid.
I’m not going to even explain that one. It’s simple. It’s memorable. It’s quick. It’s really hard to do.
The conclusion, I sometimes wonder about the complexities of life. I don’t want to ascribe to a system of belief that doesn’t take into the consideration of the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of our human experience. These “rules” are not meant to compress experiences into flat and monotonous wholes, but rather to provide some consistency and a holistic approach. They’re more like guidelines anyway. Even with that understanding in mind, easier said than done.
Matt, you have so many rules….and they are all so good! I especially like the presume nothing rule…it tends to make things easier. It crosses my mind a lot and it seems to always help me move forward from whatever I was mulling over. it makes me think of 1 Peter 1:13 and how we are to be sober in mind and spirit. Sometimes, I find myself getting “drunk” on my preconceived assumptions or speculations that I have made that have no justification but my own selfish hope or jealousy. Presume nothing just makes things, as you said, much more simple :)
Matt,
I like these rules. Especially “presume nothing.” What do you do mentally so that you actually can presume nothing? Thanks for another awesome post.
@Aleece: Thanks for commenting! I appreciate the imagery of “drunk.” It raises such excellent questions about what exactly we are drinking into our lives.
@Justin: I honestly find that the rule is often applied retroactively. I find myself presuming, and then I think “stop!” and try to realign or refocus my previous conceptualization. In this practice, there is the hope of habituating my thought-life such that the application of a rule becomes normal. Sometimes this just looks like being aware of how I’ve failed. Progress, suffice to say, is often quite difficult.
Hmm, thanks for your thoughts. It’s helpful to think about that way. Presume nothing, let’s see how it goes. :)