(Photo courtesy of Giancarlo D'Allesandro's Flickr stream and Creative Commons.)
Sometimes we hold onto an idea just a little too tightly. Sometimes we encounter somebody holding on a bit too tightly.
You know the situation. No matter what is said or suggested, it always comes back to the same concept, the same meme, the same position.
The concept is a black hole possessed of such gravitational might that it bends light and twists words. It's not that we're ignoring other ideas or people, it's just that we can neither see those ideas nor hear those people. We're idea blind.
Sometimes we cling to the idea because we couldn't possibly have been wrong all this time. Our commitment, as the psychologists say, has escalated. Sometimes it feels like this idea is all we've got.
But to others, those that might feel otherwise or be talking about something altogether different, it's like living with a parakeet that only knows one phrase.
I wonder what it would be like to force ourselves to let our pet idea (or parakeet) go for one solitary day? To convince ourselves that we were wrong all along.
Have no fear, I'm betting that we won't lose much in one day. And if the idea is good enough, it'll actually be stronger in the morning.
