Isn’t it funny how once you learn something new or are exposed to something fresh and different, that you start to notice that particular fact or thing or word in places that you never previously considered? Yesterday one of our friends who just recently learned about what we do at Sno Shield, e-mailed us this picture (below) of sliding ice and snow outside his window, with a caption along the lines of “saw this and thought of you.” We’ve had employees in the past too who had started to notice the same kinds of snow and ice dangers on roofs on just about every street they passed after starting working for us.
The need to be exposed to new ideas, ways, or facts of life is a great one for all of humanity, regardless of our natural or biased tendencies and preferences. Forcing ourselves to work outside of our comfort zone or to learn about something new and foreign expedites the life-learning process for us and leaves us better prepared for whatever the future has in store for us. As Pasteur’s famous tenet states, “chance favors the prepared mind,” and learning or seeking for new experiences very much sets the stage for that prepared state.
As the Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, wrote, we often see life like we are “looking through a glass darkly”–our perspectives are always skewed somewhat by the experiences we have had rather than the ones we haven’t. Thus, it can be easier for third parties to spot our ignorance even when we think we are being objective or unbiased. As such, breaking out of our socially constructed bubbles requires we try something new, that we associate with a new group of people, or at least hear them out and seek to understand where they are coming from. Be it our workplace, hobbies, communities, religion, or ideologies, all of our cultural paradigms have restrictions that prevent us from truly understanding the truth of the matter, whether it is the answer to the purpose of life, the answer to the best tax rate, or the answer to how many snow guards one should buy.
Life and its proclivities are far too complex to be answered by one mind, so take Plato’s advice and do what you can today to break out of your cave, and you might find that you find something new outside your window.
