It's hardly ever what you think

“You didn’t think joy could change a person, did you? Joy is what you feel when conflict is over. But it’s conflict that changes a person.”

I realize most people don’t want to change. Or want to have to think about changing. Because it’s hard. And most people want to just sink into a comfortable life. Truth is… change is inevitable, even in the individual. Your whole life you will never stop growing. You will never stop changing. And you will never stop fighting it.

Furthermore, everybody needs changing. If you floated through life all the while being a static character… your life would be relentlessly boring.

Change is good.

Ergot conflict is good.

Joy, also good.

I think the quote breaks down when it isolates joy as the feeling whence conflict culminates. Joy can be an ever-present mental state that transcends situations. You can endure conflict all the while with the joy that it is having profoundly positive effects on you.

And people try and ditch conflict and go looking for an easier story assuming that easier means better. And even if not, that easier is better than better.

I’m almost done with this book “ A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”, and it’s all about story. Every person plays a character in the story they’re living and is shaped and molded by their story. If you don’t like the person you are, sometimes the answer is as simple as changing the story. However hard that may be. Maybe you need somebody else to throw you into another story. People will come along and so will opportunities. Be ready to make them count.