The Courage Not to Have Principles

I randomly came across this beautiful quote which coincidentally strikes a cord with what I had just read in this stranger’s blog. Let’s name this stranger as…, say, ‘Cow’ for simplicity sake. In this Cow’s blog today, the recent topic depicts a life with a long list of:

- I must
- I want
- I will
- I won’t

It’s a long set of principles. For me, it’s scary. It’s confining life to your own definition and limit. Not a bad thing to do if your life is so uncontrollable (er, say example, if you are Paris Hilton). But for a non-celebrity person like us, living in a considerably ‘normal’ or common life, I do not think the above principles should be set to the minuscule actions of how many grains of rice to eat; or in the case of Cow, how many leaves of grass.

So much of principles, let’s go to the beautiful quote:

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it
takes to sit down and listen”

- Winston Churchill

Let’s muse. A Principled person would reflect the quote’s first part. And more often than not, the second part is seldom seen. Maybe by listening to others, it compromises one’s principle… or, does it?

Back to Cow's story... it has this very strong principle in everything it does. From sticking to a routined schedule to selecting what grass to eat. So much so that it's not in the pinkest state of health - the limited and selective grass makes her weak and sick. But it wants to, because ‘The Principle’ says so. Now it publishes a revised ‘The Principle Part 2’ (practised by Cat, Dog, Goat, and Mouse), to overcome the problem from ‘The Principle’. But after going through all these troubles, wouldn’t it be nice if it were to just listen to Others and not clinging on ‘The Principle’ in the first place?

Well, I hope this serves some points. But if you are not a Cow, you may be confused. If you are the Cow, and try not to be the 'cow', then you'd be able to swallow this post with ease... just add a bit of nice green grass.