Don McMinn

“You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Physicist Richard Feynman

In Leo Tolstoy’s novel The Death of Ivan Ilych, the protagonist, Ivan Ilych, is a smart, competent attorney dying from an unknown cause. Tolstoy describes a scene in which Ivan has a sobering realization while gazing at his sleeping daughter, Gerasim.

“Ivan Ilych’s physical sufferings were terrible, but worse than the physical sufferings were his mental sufferings which were his chief torture.

“His mental sufferings were due to the fact that at night, as he looked at Gerasim’s sleepy, good-natured face with its prominent cheek-bones, the question suddenly occurred to him: ‘What if my whole life has been wrong?’

“It occurred to him that what had appeared perfectly impossible before, namely that he had not spent his life as he should have done, might after all be true.”

What a probing and hopefully troubling question.

We are all wrong. Both as individuals and collectively, we are wrong about many things.

As a species (homo sapiens), we are undoubtedly and currently doing things that are terribly wrong. Just look at some of the failings of the recent past.

Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of human chattel, primarily of Africans and African-Americans, that existed from our country’s founding in 1776 until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 (only 250 years ago).

After 3,000 years of being considered a wise medical procedure, bloodletting has only recently—in the late 19th century—been discredited as a treatment for most ailments. America’s first president, George Washington, allegedly had 80 ounces of blood drained from his body in a last-ditch effort to save his life.

In the near and distant future, and for the rest of human history, humans will look with aghast at things we now consider normal and acceptable. What we accept as best-practices in the 21st century will be considered uninformed, unnecessary, even harmful, and wrong. (I’ll make a prediction: in the near future we will wonder why, in this modern era, health care was not readily available to every person on the planet.)

On a personal level, you and I are wrong about many things. There are specific areas of our lives that are wrong and need to change. 

• What if you have lived a self-centered life?
• What if you have neglected your family?
• What if you have not lived authentically?
• What if you have pursued the wrong career?
• What if you are racist?

When was the last time you admitted being wrong and revised your opinion accordingly? Know this: there are areas of your life in which you are wrong. If you think you’re an exception to this statement, your pushback betrays your naiveté, lack of self-awareness, and error.

The good news is, we can change. Thoreau said, “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life through conscious endeavor.”

Take an audit of your life; particularly consider areas in which you have a fixed mindset – areas that have been unassailable, uneditable, and beyond reproach. Also investigate areas that are part of your cultural heritage – ideologies that you inherited from your family and society. (Remember, you were not born with any opinions or beliefs; they’re not part of your DNA, you choose to endorse them.) Consider your blind spots; everyone has at least one. (You’ll need help you on this issue because you are…blinded…to your your blind spot.)

If taken seriously, this exploration could be one of the most significant and revealing events of your life.

We often think that if we admit we are wrong, people will think less of us. I think just the opposite; people will admire us. I’ll close with this story from Adam Grant’s book, Think Again (page 73).

“In the early 1990s, the British physicist Andrew Lyne published a major discovery in the world’s most prestigious science journal. He presented the first evidence that a planet could orbit a neutron star – a star that had exploded into a supernova. Several months later, while preparing to give a presentation at an astronomy conference, he noticed that he hadn’t adjusted for the fact that the Earth moves in an elliptical orbit, not a circular one. He was embarrassingly, horribly wrong. The planet he had discovered didn’t exist.

“In front of hundreds of colleagues, Andrew walked onto the ballroom stage and admitted his mistake. When he finished his confession, the room exploded in a standing ovation. One astrophysicist called it “the most honorable thing I’ve ever seen.”

When I was a teenager I heard a sermon on the mystery box. The pastor recommended that throughout life everyone should keep an imaginary box into which you place those things that happen in life for which there seems to be no good explanation. In the course of life, events and issues happen that we don’t understand. We ask “why” but never get an answer (though some well-meaning friends will offer their opinions). We pray for answers and reasons, but God is silent. 

So when a painful, unexplainable event happens, open your mystery box, place the event inside, close the lid and then stop trying to figure it out. Someday, in heaven, open up the box and talk to God.

I remember the first thing I put in my box. When growing up, my hero was the minister of music at my church. He was a wonderful man and effective minister. When he was 42 years old (I was 18) he had a stroke and became incapacitated. He’s now in his 90’s. I wrestled with God about his illness and subsequent limited lifestyle. I finally opened up my mystery box, placed the anger, confusion, and unsolved mystery inside, and shut the lid.

I’m now 68 years old and have five things in my box. 

This is a wonderful, effective way to deal with imponderables. By placing them in the box, we’re not denying or minimizing our pain and confusion. We’re simply acknowledging that there’s no clear answer available in this life, but there will be in the next. When we get to heaven, we can discuss these issues with God (though I think they will become clear the moment we arrive). 

One of my favorite Bible passages is Isiah 55:8-9: 

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

This is not new or shocking news. Do we actually think that God thinks like we do or is restricted by our limitations? If he did and was, He wouldn’t be God.

By the way, we often fumble the ball when responding to other people’s imponderables. We do them and God a disservice when we try to explain something for which there is no explanation. I even resist saying things like, “God will cause this to work out for your good” or, “this will make you stronger.” Either don’t say anything or suggest that they start their own mystery box. [Here’s a post I wrote titled Don’t say this to someone who is hurting.]

Let’s just trust God and his ways in our lives and the lives of other people.

 

Walking is good exercise. Actually, any type of movement—unloading the dishwasher, raking leaves, cleaning the house—is beneficial and trumps passivity. For many people walking is a good option because it’s so simple and available.  

Here are three suggestions that will make walking more beneficial.

Walk on uneven surfaces.

Instead of walking on a treadmill or a flat surface, walk on uneven surfaces like grass or outdoor natural terrain. 

When we walk on even, predictable surfaces, our bodies and minds quickly go on autopilot. But when the ground we walk on is irregular our muscles must constantly adjust to the changes. 

A recent study from the University of Michigan examined the physical differences between walking on uneven terrain compared with smooth surfaces. Using a special treadmill that mimicked walking over trails, grass, and uneven pavement, the researchers learned that walking on a surface that varied by only one inch from a flat, smooth surface  increased calorie-burning by 28 percent.

Walking on uneven surfaces also demands more mental effort. For instance, don’t underestimate how much brain power is required to do simple tasks, like reaching out and grasping a cup of coffee. Millions of neurons are firing as you make simple moves. When you walk on uneven surfaces your mind must constantly calculate how to negotiate those movements, and that’s good mental exercise.  

Walk barefoot, preferably on dirt. 

Grounding, or earthing, is the theory that barefoot contact is beneficial. Grounding happens when you walk barefoot on grass, dirt, sand, gravel, or concrete.

One reason direct physical contact with the ground might be beneficial is that the earth’s surface has a negative charge and is constantly generating electrons that could neutralize free radicals, which act as antioxidants. Research also suggests physical contact with the earth’s surface can help regulate our autonomic nervous system and keep our circadian rhythms—which regulate body temperature, hormone secretion, digestion and blood pressure, among other things—synchronized with the day/night cycle.

Walk on golf balls (or some other stark surface).

Reflexology is an alternative medical practice that applies pressure to specific areas of the foot. The theory behind reflexology is that specific areas of the foot correspond to organs and systems of the body. So pressure applied to the foot is thought to bring relaxation and healing to corresponding areas of the body. Several studies indicate that reflexology may reduce pain and psychological symptoms, such as stress and anxiety, and enhance relaxation and sleep. Because reflexology is also low risk, it is a reasonable option for relaxation and stress relief. 

Physical therapists and massage therapists offer reflexology treatments, but you can produce similar benefits by rolling your feet on hard, uneven surfaces such as a golf ball or the edge of a table or chair. In essence, give yourself a foot massage. 

I realize that parts of this post may seem esoteric and unscientific, and it may be. If nothing else, I encourage you to walk more (which is undoubtably beneficial) and experiment with the three suggestions. When I work in my vineyard, I’m barefoot, walking on dirt and grass, and it’s wonderfully therapeutic. 

Action item — Walk (and now you know where you walk is important).

Discussion — Share some of your walking habits.

Spoon-feeding (verb) definition: providing someone with so much help or information that they do not need to think for themselves.

The generation effect is a phenomenon where generating material, rather than passively receiving it, enhances learning and retention. It suggests that struggling to generate an answer on your own, even a wrong one, enhances learning. It is the opposite of spoon-feeding. We remember information that has been generated by our mind better than material that we’ve merely read or heard.

Educators and psychologists have long extolled the benefits of active learning techniques such as organizing material, self-explaining, learning through experience, and practicing retrieval. Underlying all these strategies is the generation effect.

• When teaching, don’t spoon-feed answers to your students. Require them to think for themselves and produce their own answers. Ask more questions and don’t offer quick answers. Use pop-quizzes, not as a test of recall for material already discussed, but as a catalyst for creative thinking.
• When learning, don’t just rely on easily accessible written materials. Don’t be too quick to use Google or other search engines to find quick answers. Force yourself to think through issues and generate your own answers, even if they’re wrong. Then, if necessary, access reliable sources to confirm truth.

Socrates was spot-on when he would ask his pupils a question and force them to generate their own answers. That’s the best way to teach and learn.

Action item —  When teaching others, ask more questions and let students struggle finding answers.

Discussion question — How can we apply the generation effect to our own self-learning?