Thinking is not the highest function of a sentient mind.

Thinking is merely one of its servants.

There is something far more powerful and consequential than mere cognition… something called attitude… the moral stance towards existence that I carry with me everywhere I go… so deeply embedded in my psyche that I do not recognize it as a choice… so all-consuming that I do not have an attitude as much as my attitude has me.

No matter my intellectual endowment, this moral stance is master over all… with the power to direct and focus my eyes and ears… to animate my hands, feet, and voice… to impassion my hopes and dreams… to give flight to my imagination… to amplify my perceptions and expectations of everyone and everything around me… for better or worse.

Thus my attitude sweeps me this way or that… towards trust or cynicism, hope or despair, judgment or curiosity, engagement or resignation, abundance or scarcity, isolation or collaboration, victimhood or empowerment, resentment or forgiveness, entitlement or stewardship… to name but a few… with the prophetic power to determine what lives and what dies.

So, in which direction is my psyche leaning today?

In which direction would I like it to lean?

Next Meditation: The Beginning of Wisdom

Existentialism Humanism attitude existentialism humanism meaning of life