Everything is interesting if you pay attention

 Everything is interesting if you pay attention is advice that is important to listen to as we move through life. What matters is that we believe that everything is as interesting as everything else. We are always given choice even when we don’t believe we have one. Some of us believe that our lives are a script and all we do is complete the lines. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who believe that we have total can complete free will and we can do what we want when we want and how we want.

Both extremes are false. Our lives are not scripted, and we do not have total free will. We are bound by our own personal paradigms about how we view life and the rules of life. The term “paradigm” was first invented by physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn to mean, “a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline.” Over the years many have used the term to describe how individuals view the world and a few years back I read a book called the Paradigm Shift. If I correctly remember the book talks about recognizing our own rules and concepts and then taking steps to shift or change the way, we view the world. Our own worldview is not developed in a vacuum, over time our worldview is shaped by first our parents, our siblings our extended family. As we mature, we learn to incorporate into our world view, the view of our neighbours, and society. We are taught that our rules are what help us survive and thrive in this world, even if our rules are wrong. In the musical South Pacific, there is a song called “You've got to be carefully taught” and in the play, the song is preceded by a line saying racism is "not born in you! It happens after you’re born, which caused the song to be seen by some as controversial in its time. Today we understand the song and the line to be true."

We have some control and free will, so when given the choice, think about smiles rather than frowns, laughter rather than crying, health rather than sickness, gains rather than losses, and income rather than expenses. After all, your loved ones are anxious to know how tomorrow's going to turn out and you should always try to look at the “Summer Side of Life”.