I’m not a poetry guy, but I stumbled across a little poem today that really spoke to me. It’s called The Road To Wisdom:
The road to wisdom? Well, it’s plain
And simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again,
but less
and less
and less.
-Piet Hein
The author, Piet Hein, was a Danish mathematician, scientist, and inventor that lived through WWII.
There is an argument for the disease concept which, beside being fallacious, I’ve never found attractive at all – and I think the same sensibility within me that rejects that argument also attracts me to this poem. It is said that it would be catastrophic for people with substance use problems to face up to the fact that their problems are self-created – that their behavior is freely chosen. The logic then goes that we should all just unthinkingly jump on board with the disease concept because it allows people to come forward and ask for help without shame.
What world do the people who push this argument live in? A perfect world where nobody ever makes a mistake? I was relieved to be told that I was in complete control of my substance use, because that meant I could change it, and when I did change it I felt like I had grown dramatically, like I had gained wisdom.
It’s ok to make mistakes; to make decisions that don’t have the best results; to exercise poor judgment. It’s not optimal, but it’s also not the end of the world. You won’t die because you realize you’ve made choices which were less than optimal – but you might learn something helpful! What would be a tragedy, would be to miss out on the long-term wisdom you could’ve gained, because you opted for the immediate comfort of shirking responsibility for the messes you’ve created. Which brings me to another of Hein’s poems, Consolation Grook:
Losing one glove
is certainly painful,
but nothing
compared to the pain,
of losing one,
throwing away the other,
and finding
the first one again.
Damn elegant………..