Theme – DarkRen’s best quality

Q: What do you think is your best quality?

A: My detachment.

Though I often muse over it from a con position, I must admit that I am quite happy to be as detached from my emotions as I am. Some might consider it Vulcan-like, though I’m sure I’m losing points already for the cornball Star Trek reference.

I don’t get excited about much. I tend to treat most days of significance and events with a blase casualness. Of course, I do get excited over the most silly of things, in the opinion of others. Games(I’m anxious to shell out my green for Gladius for GBA) and movies(Three words: Resident Evil: Apocalypse *Quiver*).

But I make no apologies for my state. I get excited over what makes me happy. For some it’s traditions and other such things which I find largely without personal merit and for me it’s games and my latest two hour fantasy trip before a return to the annoying, but admittedly important state of reality.

Why I consider my detachment good is it allows me a bit more of an open mind. People wrapped up in their emotions have their judgment influenced by it. We can see the most obvious examples in zealots of any caliber, from any grouping or subculture in life be they from a religious group or an alternative lifestyle/ideology. All zealots allow their emotions to override their better judgment and hence corrupt their own message with their extreme tactics.

I take a more careful route. The best way to understand one’s foes and allies is to place yourself in their shoes and try to embrace what things look like from their side. Have an Israeli live as a Palestinian for a week and I bet you any anti-Palestine thoughts will be softened with the new understanding of his ‘foe’. Yet it takes a mind willing to embrace the principals of a foe for an instant to do so. The irrational mind cannot do that effectively.

I do my best to be rational in all things, though I am far from perfect. I try to see things form all sides, even if I do not end up adjusting my views. It is how I can casually use religious terminology while maintaining my Agnosticism. I can talk with people about experiences I don’t necessarily believe and not call them crazy or insane, but have faith the person I am speaking with. I believe I can accept anyone, despite what their beliefs are, so long as they respect my own. And in acceptance and discussion I can test and change or hold my own beliefs as my view of this world is expanded.

We humans are the dominant species on this planet because we adapt and grow. Yet too many close their minds and lock off their potential growth in the trap of dogma and rhetoric. They cling to the walls of the past, when it is time for the world to take down the walls and come together under a boundless sky of potential. It is time for more open minds and more rational detachment, I believe. That we can better move our species into the future and leave our past ghosts in the museums and in out memories where they belong as just warnings of past mistakes.

Succinctness is not always a strength of mine, though. 😉