March 19, 2023 | Issue #60

1 Quote. 1 Reflection. 1 Question.

1 Quote.

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right,"

 -From: Thomas Paine

-Source: Common Sense

1 Reflection.

Thomas Paine was one of the most prolific writers of the American Revolution. His pamphlet, Common Sense, was a colonial best-seller and played a critical role in the fight for freedom. 

Common Sense sold 120,000 copies in its first three months, and by the end of the Revolution, 500,000 copies were sold. To put it into perspective, an estimated 20 percent of colonists owned a copy of the revolutionary booklet. When deciding on a logo for the new website, I decided on Thomas Paine because of the power of his pamphlet at the time, and the relevancy it has today. 

Paine's words in this quote highlight the danger of believing something is right when in fact, it is wrong. 

Our minds like to play tricks with us, and it can be easy to justify wrong things and perceive them as being right. 

We can tell ourselves that a job is okay because it pays the bills. 

We can tell ourselves it's okay if we let our health slip because we are busy.

 We can tell ourselves it's okay to leave a crappy tip because we are also struggling with inflation.

 We can tell ourselves it's okay to ignore mom's call because we can call her tomorrow. 

Every lie we tell ourselves is like adding an extra pound to our packs. Eventually, it becomes too heavy and we end up stuck. Over time, as we stay stuck, we do as all humans do, and adapt. Once adapting, we begin to accept our new fate and realize that we will never move again, and somehow we justify it.  

Today is the perfect day to turn our wrongs into rights because we don't want to get stuck and accept a new, unfortunate reality.

1 Question.

What action or thought are you justifying?



P.S. If you liked this newsletter you can dig through our archive here. You can also find our latest article "The Greatest Battle of the Korean War: Part 1" here.