Right or Well?

by startingover 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  startingover

  I don't know who wrote this but I found it interesting.
  
  RIGHT OR WELL?
  
  I heard a funny story about a cowboy who ambled into the local blacksmith shop and picked up a horseshoe, not realizing it had just come from the forge. He immediately dropped the hot shoe, shoved his seared hand into his pocket and tried to act nonchalant.
  
  
  The blacksmith half smiled and asked, "Kinda hot, wasn't it?"
  
  
  "Nope," replied the cowboy, "just don't take me long to look at a horseshoe, that's all."
  
  
  I chuckle at the story because it illustrates the widespread truth that most of us have difficulty admitting mistakes. But even more compelling is our almost universal urge to be right.
  
  I learned of one particular minister who left his pulpit to go to medical school and become a doctor. An old friend saw him several years later and expressed surprise at his career change, but said he assumed it had been because he could care for people in a more concrete way now that he was practicing medicine.
  
  "Not at all," the doctor responded honestly, "the reasons were purely economic. I discovered that people will pay more money to care for their bodies than for their souls."
  
  Several years lapsed before the friend saw him again and discovered that he had left medicine for law. "What was your reason this time?" the friend asked.
  
  "Simple economics again," replied the ex-minister, ex-doctor attorney. "I learned that people will pay more to prove they are right than to care for either body or soul."
  
  This man discovered something peculiar about human nature. People want to be RIGHT. In conflict, most folks want to come out on top. When they are wronged, they want justice. If no justice is forthcoming, they lament about the unfairness of it all and brood in righteous indignation. Many people will go to great lengths to prove they are right -- and at tremendous cost, not only financially, but in other ways.
  
  Being the "injured party" exacts a high toll on physical and emotional health. Some people pay dearly to be right. They stew about the injustice and it eats away their stomachs in ulcers. While they wait for an apology or to be vindicated, they grow resentful and bitter. They obsess on the cause of their pain and allow it to rob them of one of their most valuable assets -- their happiness. In the end, some people discover they paid far too high a price to be right.
  
  The only solution, of course, is to let it go. For it often comes down to one simple and poignant question: Do You Want To Be Right, Or Well? Truth is, too often you can't be both. But when you let go of being right, you can get on with healing. Let go of being right and you can finally live fully and happily in the present.
  
  Do you want to be right or well? That may just be one of the most important questions you ever answer.
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  Navigator

  Good Post! You are so correct! I have known so many people who have destroyed their own health because they are unwilling to "let go" of some imagined hurt or wrong. As my old mother-in-law used to say, "it's not so much what you eat that determines your health, but what's eating you". There is so much documented evidence now that our negative emotions play havoc with our immune systems.
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  moonwillow

  People seem to have so many walls these days not wanting to let anyone in and so many doors closed to keep people out. How can you live and be yourself living this way. Seems to be so much fear.
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  Flowerpetal

  Maybe they are tired of getting hurt.
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  moonwillow

  I agree Flowerpetal, sometimes it's a mean ugly world we live in
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  jgnat

  I raged at my mother for years for leaving me. Her healthy mind left, and all that remained was a mentally ill shadow of what she once was.

  I did not recover until I separated what was under my control to change from what I could not. I gave up the mom that raised me. I decided to be happy. I learned to love this new mom in my life.

  You can rage against the injustices of this world and kick that granite rock all you like. The rock ain't movin', and all you will get is stubbed toes.
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  lovinlife

  You are so right......"The only solution, of course, is to let it go. " I had a lot of pain...from injustice at the way my ex treated me, from the way the elders mishandled the entire situation, the way the society handled the situation, from my now ex friends, and even my (ex)parents. But, until you let go of the hurt...even if the hurt is not imagined, but very real, you will not be able to move on to mental or physical health. It took years for me to do that, and I still have twinges of the feeling of "IT'S NOT FAIR!". But when I finally started to let go, it was like the weight of the world left my shoulders. No wonder people get sick carrying that load around for a long time! Great post!