Shout out to @SinghBhai for this quote:

JAPANESE WISDOM: If it’s not yours, don’t take it. If it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it. If you don’t know, be quiet.

What do you suppose would happen if we actually lived by these words?

I think I’m pretty good with the first two. However, the third one… I can be somewhat hyperbolic when I’m frustrated. I’m not exactly lying, but I exaggerate for emphasis. So, I don’t think I’m doing too badly on the third one either. Especially as people get to know me and they figure out that I’m a bit dramatic and hyperbolic when I’m frustrated.

But that last one, oh my… arrogance is something that I’ve always struggled with. And I haven’t quite figured out when I don’t know something.

Frequently, I’m pretty sure that I know everything.

The thing is that I’ve always understood, intellectually, the idea; “those who know don’t talk, and those who talk don’t know”. I know this to be a truth yet I constantly prove I don’t know things by thinking that I do.

Despite my falling short on one of the four bits of wisdom to live by, I think that these are very solid truths that we should incorporate into our daily practice.

Here’s an essay on a similar set of truths that I put together a few months ago. Enjoy. Cheers.

One might think that metaphors belong in poetry and literature. We tend to see them as decorative language; colorful ways of expressing ideas that could just as easily be said plainly. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By makes a good case to think otherwise. 

Their argument is that metaphors are not simply ways of speaking. They’re ways of thinking.

Human beings understand much of reality through metaphor. We take things that are abstract, complicated, or difficult to grasp and interpret them through things that are familiar and concrete. Over time, these metaphors become so common that we stop noticing them. Yet they continue to shape how we perceive the world.

Consider the phrase “winning an argument.” We attack points. We defend positions. We shoot down ideas. We gain ground. We lose ground. The underlying metaphor is simple: argument is war. The significance is not that we speak this way. The significance is that we often behave this way. If argument is war, then the goal becomes victory. The other person becomes an opponent. The conversation becomes a battlefield.

Imagine how differently society might function if our dominant metaphor was argument as exploration, or argument as collaboration.

We see the same pattern everywhere: Time is money. Life is a journey. Knowledge is light. Organizations are machines. Communities are networks. Nations are families. And these metaphors shape how problems are defined and how solutions are pursued. What makes this idea particularly important is that every metaphor illuminates some aspects of reality while obscuring others. A machine metaphor highlights efficiency, predictability, and control. It tends to overlook emotion, culture, relationships, and meaning. A garden metaphor highlights growth, stewardship, seasons, adaptation, and care. It draws attention to entirely different aspects of the same reality.

Whether we realize it or not, this insight has profound implications for social change.

Many people assume that changing society is primarily about changing policies, systems, or institutions. Those things matter. Yet beneath every institution lies a story. Beneath every story lies a metaphor. And the metaphor often determines what people believe is possible.

If society is viewed as a marketplace, people begin to think like consumers. If society is viewed as a machine, people begin to think like components. If society is viewed as a community, people begin to think like neighbors.

The battle for culture is often a battle between competing metaphors.

This idea resonates deeply with my own work. Much of what I find myself doing is offering alternative metaphors for understanding human life. Community as infrastructure. Stewardship instead of control. A social garden instead of a social machine. Money as a claim on value rather than value itself. These are more than differences in wording. They’re different lenses through which people can view the world.

That may be the most important lesson from Metaphors We Live By. Human beings rarely act on facts alone. Facts must be organized into meaning. Meaning is often carried by stories. Stories are built upon metaphors. Change the metaphor, and over time you may change the story.

Change the story, and eventually you may change the culture.

You can find the rest of the article at RIVER Magazine