The joy of being wrong

I don’t go on many dates. It’s not that I’m afraid of dating, nor do I fear rejection (case in point: I once asked the same girl out seven times and got rejected five of those times (and if you’re wondering why I kept asking, it’s because she said yes in between, and she wasn’t giving any direct refusal signs (she was really nice (and nesting parentheses can be addicting)))). I could say I don’t have enough time, but who am I joking? Making time isn’t that hard.

So, with that foundation in place, I was listening to an Education Week talk this afternoon on choosing a marriage partner. “The Lord can’t steer a parked car,” the speaker said. It reverberated in my head and heart. All along I’ve been set in my ways, thinking I was of course right in my attitudes toward dating, yadda yadda yadda. With those words, however, the walls I’d been building all crumbled to pieces.

And with that we now arrive at the point of this article: isn’t it wonderful to have been wrong all along?

Notice the tense — “have been,” not “be.” It’s only when you realize you’ve been on the wrong path that you can make a course correction and get on the right one. And that realization, the proverbial light bulb, is so beautiful it can make your heart want to burst with light and smiles. (At least that’s the way I feel.)

Now, in this particular matter I don’t yet know if I have indeed been wrong all along, but I’m secretly hoping I have. Why? Because I’m stuck on a stagnant plateau, and being wrong means there’s an opportunity to change my viewpoint and make some progress.

I don’t think the sparsity of dates in my past has been a sin, but isn’t this recognition of wronghood what repentance is all about? If we don’t acknowledge our faults, we can’t shed them, and as long as we remain in our fake skins of pride and everything else, we can’t become the true, solid, real people God intends us to be.

What talk was this, by the way? Share the enlightenment!

and nesting parentheses can be addicting

As long as you’re using a spiffy text editor that automatically closes each one you open, we’re good…

Your post reminds me of one I wrote over two years ago about being in the same quagmire. You think I’d be out of said quagmire by now… :)

Being wrong can be quite enlightening. And humbling.

“I’m stuck on a stagnant plateau, and being wrong means there’s an opportunity to change my viewpoint and make some progress.”

Thanks for that perspective, Ben. Boy, did I need to hear that. *sigh*

Ben, may dear friend! YEAH! I’m excited for you :) did my “matchmaking” last week play and role (looking for praise ;) )
LOL! May you have many dating days ahead.
Yes, I too love the “light bulb” moments, we talked about mine a few weeks back and I am please to report I am still going strong on my new “knowledge and light” :)

Liz: It was Brent A. Barlow, on LDSVoices.

Connor: Half the time I don’t really want the automatic closing of parentheses (or brackets), though. Maybe I’m just a control freak, but I prefer closing them by hand. :) (But I do see where they could come in handy.)

Your post sounded almost like I could have written it. :) (And here’s my moment of shallowness: I don’t really find blondes all that attractive. From a purely objective point of view, yes, many of them are quite pretty, but there’s something about brunettes that’s nigh well electrifying for me. But rather than think of myself as being overly picky, I try to look at it as a built-in homing device helping me find the right girl.)

Katherine: :)

Jacqueline: Glad to hear it. :)

All y’all: as an update, for the first few days I had decided to go on two dates a week (make up for lost time, I suppose), but yesterday I realized that that’s probably overkill. Not only would I run out of girls twice as fast, but I’d also run a high chance of getting burned out and stopping altogether. One a week should be enough. This week’ll be my third (and I already have a date), so as long as I can keep up my momentum, I should be fine.

Now, I don’t have any pending marriage announcement to make, but I can say that my perspective is slowly changing. The dry wadi is starting to flow again — just a trickle, mind you, but we’ll see if it doesn’t turn into a full-fledged river before long.

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