Thinking is not the highest function of a sentient mind…
Thinking is merely one of its servants.
There’s 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 don’t even 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, and 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 pessimism or optimism, cynicism or trust, despair or hope, judgment or curiosity, resignation or engagement, scarcity or abundance, competition or collaboration, victimhood or empowerment, resentment or forgiveness, entitlement or gratitude, to name but a few… each with the prophetic power to determine what lives and what dies.
So, in which direction is my attitude leaning today?
In which direction would I like it to lean?