I have always tested to see if something is true. It didn’t matter what the topic was.
When I was a kid I was told the stove was hot and it would burn me. I didn’t believe it. I put my hand on the stove and got burned quite badly. I believe the stove was hot after that.
Why share this story with you? In life, we are told things by well-meaning people. People who feel they are helping us by giving us advice. I have learned that often advice is untrue and that you sometimes have to find your own way in life.
As a kid, I did many things that were dangerous not because I wanted to do dangerous things but because I was curious about what would happen. One day when I was doing a science experiment with a carrot I cut and deeply sliced my thumb. It almost came off. In the emergency room, it was a unique experience having them work on it and give me stitches. The doctor couldn’t believe the story. He made me promise to be more careful with knives.
Other times I accidentally stepped on glass or nails because I liked to be barefoot or just wear simple sandals. That was another emergency room visit. I had many doctor visits as a child because of my curiosity.
As a kid and now I test everything that I am told to believe. We have to critically evaluate information and base our decisions on not what we want to believe, but what is true and helps others in the world. So for example when I see people who deny climate change I wonder what they think. I wonder if their worldview ever has empathy for the 150 million people that are projected to die due to climate change. Or of the millions of animals who will die due to warmer temps? Or of the suffering that could have been avoided if people had been more responsible.
Once we know something is true we don’t need to hurt ourselves. Why are we hurting ourselves when we do things we know are unhelpful for us?