How we see our environment can depend on how long we have already lived in it. A grown-up sees the world differently than a teenager. Who sees it differently than a child did before, whose mother saw it differently again. Which perspective is more accurate? Surely as we grow older, through experience and thought process we get to know more things and get a better understanding of already familiar things. On the other hand, through the process of forgetting one can also stop knowing something. For example do you know why the leaning tower of Pisa is actually leaning? If you don’t know the reason (because the swampy ground makes the tower foundation unstable), you most probably did, some time ago.
Who really knows a game better, the expert, who already has long internalized all the rules and strategies and doesn’t have to think about them anymore, or a beginner who learns them and just realizes all of the games particularities? In learning something new, we really commit our mind‘s capacity to it. After that, our attention drops and through familiarity, the new becomes the old. A grand master of chess might be the best in winning chess matches, but it is the beginner, who through the process of beginning, really identifies the character of what makes the chess game unique.
Who gets a clearer view of a family? A mother, who is already part of it, or her child, whose perspective on the family members is new and therefore unbiased by previous experiences. Someone who was born and raised in a city and who has never lived anywhere else sure knows all of the city’s streets and angles, but by seeing it in contrast to other places, a new person in town might be even better capable to perceive its spirit.
It is in the beginning of every chapter in life, when we experience it the most. A love is strongest in its beginning. A change in our political system raises most passion (positive or negative) amongst society members when it is just about to happen. Once established, we accept it or take it for granted. The word „beginning“ is positively connotated, as opposed to the negativity of its opposite: „end“.
Maybe it is the fate of our species (or if you don’t like the idea of having a fate: our collective decision) to continuously favor change over the steadiness of an existing state and thereby enabling the beginning of something new. Maybe this is okay and we don’t need to create a system that will work indefinitely. Instead, whenever trying something new: think of the beginning as its principal part.
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