Incomplete Understanding

I woke up this morning with a phrase running through my head: Don't judge people for where they are. See them as they could be.

I wonder about the idea of progress. For progress to exist, a few things are required. You need to know where you are. You need to know where you want to be in the future. And the future should be better than the present.

The concept of "better" requires a value system. We must a judge or discern what is better, the present or the future. But where does this value system come from? And what happens when two different value systems come into conflict with each other? Do we impose a third value system to determine which of the two is better?

One thing we can do is be humble. I think it's a wise person that can always hold onto the idea, "It's possible that I could be wrong." That keeps us open to growth. Shoot, I could be wrong about the idea of being open to possibly being wrong.

Now that I think about, maybe the idea isn't one of wrongness per se, but ignorance. It may be better to say, "My understanding is incomplete." That honors both your current thoughts and feelings while remaining open to change.

This idea let's us live life with a sense of wonder because incomplete understanding means the future will always be bigger than the present. We have new ideas to explore. New ways to improve. New ways to be better.