The most important art to master in this life is the art of human relationship. Building and sustaining relationships is our greatest life priority. Unfortunately, history reflects a story of broken and challenged relationships. Nations war. Marriages struggle. Customers complain. The list goes on and on. Understanding the force dividing people is vital to our achieving the harmony we seek.
The dividing force unfortunately making its way into all of our lives is our persistence in being right. Kathryn Schulz, in her book Being Wrong, suggests that being right is the greatest human addiction. We all love it. We need it. Not being right represents our greatest human failure and the one we hate the most. As a result, being right has become an obsession.
While being right is our obsession, being wrong is our bane. Perhaps more than our need to be right is our greater need not to be wrong. Unfortunately, as Schulz develops it, wrongness is our condition. Because we are always in the process of development, we are always in a condition of being wrong. Wrongness is our reality.
That takes us back to the challenge of human relationships. Successful relationship in this life requires humility. Human arrogance divides. Demanding rightness, forces others into the perceived position of being wrong which we all disdain. So, getting comfortable with being wrong is our challenge.
Personally, I realized a long time ago that rightness fits into the category of spiritual conviction. Once you come to grip with the reality of righteousness as a gift as opposed to an accomplishment, life takes on new meaning. The pressure is off. Thanksgiving is on. Following becomes our theme. Humility becomes our new state of mind. Relationships are characterized by peace. Do well, my friends.
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