I haven't written in this blog for a long time now -- and I figure it's because the act of blogging has become overwhelmingly daunting to me. It takes me hours to write something, because I feel the need to document and write down every relevant thing. But this isn't just a problem about me being comprehensive. I had already decided I would start writing topically rather than recounting daily events. The problem is that I feel the need to include "everything" in order to explain something. I always feel I don't have enough information to formulate a valid opinion on something. I'm always in the "middle" because I always see potential validity and truth in multiple arguments. But that brings me back to a quote by Henry R. Nau, an international relations scholar:
"We have to neglect some facts not because we are ignorant or ideological but precisely because we can know something only if we exclude something else.... we see the world differently and judge different facts to be more important."
In summation: Exclusion leads to understanding. It also highlights the idea of personal preference and "naturality."
An example that was brought up in another class of mine: If you put your hands together and clasped them, is your right thumb or your left thumb on top? Apparently, it's supposed to be 50/50 for people. I personally have my right thumb on top. You can do it the other way, sure -- but it takes a more conscious effort. What feels "natural" or automatic to people are inherently different, whether biologically or due to environmental upbringing, etc. I am not unbiased, and I must have a "natural" preference for something. By speaking to one position, I am not necessarily disregarding or incapable of understanding the other, I am simply emphasizing one over the other, influenced by my principle values.
I have to accept that even if I don't know all there is to know, no matter at what point I am at, my opinions are still valid and should be expressed un-apologetically. In adopting that mindset, I am posting this ridiculous post of un-edited, un-polished mini self-reflection.
May this open new doors for my own self expression, on this blog or otherwise.