In one of my favorite
movies, “Secondhand Lions” there is a dialog that really resonates with me. The quote comes from Hub McCann who is giving
a speech: “What every boy needs to know to be a man” to Walter. It was in response to Walter saying:
“I don’t know what to believe in.”
“If you want to believe in
something, then believe in it. Just because something isn’t true, there’s no
reason you can’t believe in it. Sometimes the things that may or may not be
true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most: that people are
basically good; that honor, courage and virtue mean everything; that power and
money mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; that true love never
dies. It doesn’t matter if they are true or not. A man should believe in those
things, because those are the things worth believing in.”
The line within the quote
that strikes me is “believe what you want to believe.” I like the entire quote but this line epitomizes
how I think we should approach some of our key beliefs. We should not base our beliefs on what is
fashionable or politically correct but on how we want something to be.
Everyday we are faced
with incomplete information and it is implied that we need to make a decision
or change our position on a given subject; I don’t subscribe to this theory. For example: There have been times in my life when I was
told derogatory things about my parents. Like Walter I did not know what to believe and
really was at a loss on how to react to the information. So I choose to believe what I wanted to
believe and not let something that may or may not be true change my impression
of my parents. This has helped me deal
with people who attempt to challenge my beliefs highlighting a snapshot event
to seed doubts about a person or organization.
This philosophy applies
to any number of subject areas but is not carte blanche. One still has to make decisions based on
facts but a single data point does not need to result in a course correction on
your beliefs.
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