by Ray Newman, radio and television commentator, attorney, educator, author

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

HAPPY NEW DAY

I would guess that most people, given a choice between the familiar and the strange, would choose the familiar. Agree? Take out books from the library by familiar authors, eat in familiar restaurants, stay at familiar hotels, drive familiar routes, etc. The familiar, or well known, is associated with a desire that things go in the future the way they went in the past...and the comfortable and safe feeling that they probably will.

The strange, or new and unknown, is the seeing of what you haven't seen before, the hearing of what you haven't heard before, the thinking about what you haven't thought about before. It is associated with a desire to discover new realities..and the exciting potential of touching your spirit and expanding your life.

The choice you make between the familiar and the strange is life-forming. It affects not only what you do but, perhaps more importantly, how you feel about what you do. We feel little glory when we triumph without risk. We do not gain much self-esteem when the choices we make today are the same exact ones we made yesterday. There are fewer thrills and eurekas in the familiar than in the new.

The familiar is mind numbing. It is in our nature to automatize the doing of things we have done over and over again before. The strange piques interest and excites our senses.

Your daily choice.

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