Episode 6.10: Multi-layered readings of the present enrich us and help avoid premature certainties.

If we learn to live the present by seeing the multiplicity of the possibilities that are in it rather than the possibly-dire consequences of whatever certainty it is that we may think we see in it, then we will find that our lives are enriched and we are made better able to derive as much meaning as possible from every present experience in Dewey’s terms. One of our most serious bad habits as human beings is forming premature fixed judgements about what is the case. Learning to live with multiple readings is one way of helping to break that habit and so putting ourselves in a position where we can see the positive consequences of everything that happens rather than - as is more common - only the negative ones.