On the Nature of Erring

Today I was reading "Meditations on First Philosophy" by Descartes, which at first was an annoyance in the middle of my attempting to write a history paper, but it put me in a thinking state of mind.

I was about to go resume writing my history paper since I had finished reading the first and second meditations when I picked up my briefcase and, not realizing that the latches were undone, dropped everything inside on the floor.

My friend immediately said "Oh, that sucks" as if dropping my briefcase should be a damper on my mood. It made me realize that things that stress out a lot of people don't really affect me. I just picked up my things, latched my briefcase, and set off to what I was going to do.

What made my friend think that dropping my briefcase was bad? We've all grown up seeing people in the media and everyday life stressing about similar things like spilling coffee on themselves and having it ruin their day because from then on, a series of bad events just kept piling on the effects of that cup of coffee. What if, in the first place, they thought that spilling the coffee wasn't such a bad thing, washed the coffee out immediately and moved on? Then they wouldn't be thinking that their day will be a bad one--they would have lived out their day as if nothing had happened in the first place.

Having a bad day is just a state of mind. If you treat things as they are, then they can only be that--what they are. A spilled cup of coffee is merely a spilled cup of coffee--not a reason to complain about having a horrible day and stressing yourself out further probably causing you to make more errors in your state of stress that can only compound that stress and maybe even causing co-workers and family members to complain about how much you complain since you have compounded your stress onto them. By not dealing with the problem for yourself, it is now everyone's problem that you spilled that coffee because it will no doubt effect every interaction you have with other people for that day because that is what you've told yourself is the right thing to do in this situation.

Therefore, if you spilled your coffee on yourself in the morning and you believe that it ruined your day, it is not in fact the coffee that ruined your day, but your own lack of faculties to deal with the effects of this spilled coffee, for in reality this coffee should have no effect other than being just that--spilled coffee.

In the end, if you try wiping out the stain immediately without stressing about it, you know that you'll have done everything in your power to remove the stain and there is nothing else you can do except hope that it'll come out in the wash.

The same is true for my briefcase. I just put my things back in, accepted it, and kept going.

I guess what I mean by this is that sometimes we are too hard on ourselves and it only makes things worse. Give yourself a break and do what's best to truly solve the problem and it will stress you out much less in the end.

Perhaps more Philosophy later--now back to that paper.

Edit:

When someone I know saw this, they sent me this poem: