Persuasion in the pulpit

Whiffle Waffling Wafflers

Trip the Light Fantastic 

If anyone makes me think they are in any way giving me the credit for their seeing the light in any matter, they are actually giving me the responsibility for their own decisionless decisions. 

It is a responsibility that is not theirs to give. It is their own and not mine in any manner. I cannot persuade anyone, everyone persuades themselves. And they should take good credit for it, for themselves.

 I have learned that talking, like a puff of wind,  is not effective if one wants to advocate a position anyway. It is just a release for the talker. It usually hardens them into a incompletely thought out decision.  

It also is not a decision for anyone who agrees in a group. But they, there as well, will also refuse responsibility for a group decision. Often this after every cruel and disgusting position they find themselves were a part, all of course, in hind sight. 

Writing opinions down is more lasting, than talking. Writing your opinions down is harder than explaining them vocally. Writing objectifies my thinking, potentially permanent, like working an idea out in my own mind, only better. 

My ideas do work themselves out, sort of like climbing a ladder, I tend, by writing, not to fall behind into the sea of forgetfulness. But as opinions evolve and progress I date them since that is my thinking as of that date. My opinions are alive and as I grow they could grow. 

As one becomes older we should be able to change our minds instantly when we find we are wrong. Each dated idea is frozen in time while I myself move flexibly on, either the same or differently. It is a characteristic of the seen opinion that it can, and often enough does, change. When my seen time is over, I only hope my unseen will be happy with the previously seen.