“The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.“
- Niels Bohr (1885 – 1962), Danish physicist and pioneer in atomic research, winner of 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics
Before you get too deep in today’s post, don’t knock yourselves out with the quote. Bohr was a physicist, fer cryin’ out loud – we’re not supposed to understand him. Heck, I captured that quote seven years ago, not knowing if I’d ever choose to use it…
So, why choose it now?
Subscribers will be reading this post on Election Day, 2024. This brings me to the most often repeated quote in The Diff’s 22-year history: “Most things in life are neither good nor bad, right nor wrong. Most things just are.”*
We don’t know.
Until we do. And even then, it’s subject to change, because of whatever comes next.
In the meantime, Difference Makers focus on what comes next. Whatever got us here likely won’t get us there if there means somewhere better, different. Some dude named Jeremiah quoted some deity named God once: “I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Yeah, it’s a business blog, but it’s my business blog, and by now, seeing a Faith-based angle hopefully isn’t a surprise for anyone.
A huge deal blew up even though you’d already figured out how to spend the commission? Hmmmm… “Good news, bad news? Who knows?” as Dr. Graf used to say.
Someone might have had a flat tire on the day in 2007 when the Mississippi River bridge collapsed in the Twin Cities, and that might have kept them from being on the bridge. The flat tire may have kept the lives lost count at 13. Richie Valens and The Big Bopper might have been really upset that they had the flu, and were facing a long, cold bus ride until….
Waylon Jennings and Tommy Alsup might have been upset that they gave their seats on Buddy Holly’s plane to Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.
Are those examples too graphic? Sometimes, we have to paint a graphic picture to make a point. Just like the cast of A Christmas Story kept doing to poor Ralphie. (…I typed, lightening the mood quite a bit…)
Making a point. Or at least trying to make a point. Profound or otherwise.
Here’s hoping that’s what both sides of dang-near every election being decided on November 5, 2024 are trying to do: make a point – no matter how flawed their messaging might be. Maybe the things they’re putting out as truths are profoundly offset by an opposite truth.
All I know for sure is the one actual, real, guaranteed truth — that one promised to us via ol’ Jeremiah — will, eventually, rule the day, and until then, let’s make whatever difference we can, one thought, action, word and deed at a time.
A good way to start is to vote, by the way. Now, or earlier than now, but don’t miss the obligation.
*Kudos to Dr. Tom Graf, who is still a Difference Maker 37 years later!
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