Conventional Wisdom and Changes

When I was growing up, someone in power had the notion that girls did certain things, and boys did certain things, and nobody should mix that up. For instance, girls could not take shop in Jr. high school, and boys could not take home economics. This seemed strange to me, since my great, grand aunt was a cabinet maker and most of the world's great chefs were men. Nevertheless, this was the conventional wisdom of the day. I'm glad to see this ... well, I was going to say "has changed," but that sounds finished, so I'll say, is changing. Well, at least, in some parts of the world.

It seems to me that "conventional wisdom" is seldom wise, and really only conventional to the unimaginative mind, or the mind crippled by dogma. Yet it seems we are all, at some point in our lives, limited in possibility by someone else's conventional wisdom.

There is much talk these days about Dec. 21, 2012 and how this date portends the end of the world ~ as we know it. Ah... there's the rub: as we know it. This puts me in mind of the Death card in Tarot. It is unlikely that this card foretells the actual death of anyone. More likely it speaks silently to the death of an idea, a conviction, a lifestyle... you get it. It means change. Probably profound change. Sometimes change is good. Sometimes it isn't. Most often it's both, since in our world, there are pros and cons to pretty much everything. Like when I discovered that there are even more limitations to my diet, I thought, "oh no, this is going to be awful." But it hasn't been awful at all. At worst, it's been challenging, and I'm having fun discovering alternative foods that are far more delicious and satisfying than the foods I ate before. I had been eating the foods of conventional wisdom. They were making me very ill. I feel a lot better.

Which is all to say, limitations can be bad. Limitations can be good. Change can be bad and change can be good. Do not fear change. Be ready.