Dear Doubt,
I remember when we first met. We were in a class and it was actually quite awkward. We were covering something I KNEW had an obvious answer. Heck, everybody in the class knew the answer was obvious. Then, with a few decisive words from the professor, I really noticed you for the first time. See, the real answer was exactly the opposite of what I thought.
I wasn’t trying to meet you. Nobody wants to meet you at first. You’re that somewhat scary kid in the back row who says nothing, but clearly thinks lots of things. Getting to know you would necessarily shake up all sorts of things in my world. But after seeing you that first time, I couldn’t resist. Knowing you has absolutely changed my life for the better.
See, today it’s easier than ever to find a network or website that’s more than happy to tell you the things you want to hear. But you, Doubt, make it impossible to listen to one part of the story and pretend it’s the whole story. You always show me the other side.
F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” I believe you, Doubt, are the key to achieving Fitzgerald’s goal. Holding one idea in opposition to another while believing either to be inviolable is simply not possible. But you make it possible for any idea to be challenged.
You taught me to look at my own preconceived ideas with the perspective of an outsider. You allow me to revisit my thinking from the past with fresh eyes. You force me to (this one really hurts) alter or outright change my position when I learn new, real, contradictory information.
Doubt, the most beautiful thing about you is the way you keep my mind from closing. You prevent that all-to-common situation where I become so enamored with one story or position that I literally cannot absorb any information to the contrary. You allow me to have meaningful conversations in my own head first so I can have them with others later.
You taught me that great exercise of truly and honestly articulating the best possible counterargument to the position I hold. It’s kinda awful in a really growth-inducing kind of way. But I know, if I can’t come up with a nearly convincing argument for an idea that’s won over about half the population, I have some serious gaps in my understanding of the issue.
Anyhow Doubt, you’ve changed my world and made it better. You’ve shown me sometimes things are more complicated than I’d like to acknowledge. That’s made me less comfortable, but I think it’s made me better, too. I know you’re not particularly popular at the moment, but I’m pulling for you. I think you are just what America needs right now.
Love,
Matt