The blessing of being wrong

The Earth is flat. Yes, despite all the scientific evidence, all images taken by satellite, all the astronauts who said otherwise, I'm sure that the earth is flat. I do not understand how there are still ignorant to say that it is round.

(I can almost see your face with interrogation and amazement!).

Easy.

I do not know how you felt reading the first paragraph. Sometimes I feel a boiling inside me when I hear misstatements like that. You know when someone says something blatantly wrong? We fill a discomfort in chest, a willingness to correct the mistake, saying "Of course the earth is round!" And begin to speak about the obviousness of it...

However, the opposite also happens very often. We are those who are making a mistake. On some occasions, even a disgusting individual appears to correct us in front of everyone. Shame. It would be nice if we could to go back in time and don’t say any nonsense! How boring... Why we cannot be always right?

At these times, maybe I should comfort myself and say "it is missing that we learn." But it would challenge my own conscience because I believe that it is hitting that we learn. After all, if you fall at all times to try rollerblading, when are you going to learn? At some point you will need to hit. However, I still believe that there is something good in err and I want to suggest here that being wrong can be a blessing.

First, if I'm wrong, at least I'm alive. I have my mental faculties in good working order. After all, I wrote a whole argument to prove my reasons - although misguided. This shows that I am intelligent and have the ability to hit.

Secondly, it is not dishonorable change your mind. And that change only occurs when we have the humility to recognize our error. Cling to the desire to win an argument can even cause a good adrenaline rush, but also can separate great friends.

Third, no one knows everything. Omniscience is an attribute that was not granted to men for their own good. If we had all the knowledge, necessarily would know the past, the future and all that could have been. It would be an unbearable boredom. Without knowing all, however, we can always live with high expectations, as when waiting for a party. Each day that was still not lived can be the best in our lives, each book unread can provide us spiritual growing; each knowledge not yet purchased may grant pleasing to get it.

The blessing of being wrong is to better understand the error and then to get right. If, by chance, someone insists on reminding us of all the mistakes we have committed, know that it does not define who we are. Even if you have always believed that the Earth is flat. Your past mistakes are useful to push you to the first hit. And the first hit is the first step to get where you want.

In our lives, we cannot escape from making mistakes. We make mistakes even when we are right: for example, when we say obvious phrases like "yesterday I dreamed a dream." However, if to err is to be ignorant, perhaps we should be proud of it. We are all ignorant of everything that we do not know (That's obvious. But some obvious phrases say so amazing truths...).

This text was originally published on the newspaper Diário do Sudoeste da Bahia.