Wanting To Be Right

Jill Bolte Taylor, "My Stroke of Insight", p. 181, says, "I love that old saying, 'Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?'"

I find this a hard question to answer.

How does one know she/he is "right".  I can 'feel' right, I can appeal to some authority (The Bible, a leader, a political ideology, etc.O and/or I can have admiring friends tell me I am 'right'.  But I might not be right.  I might be very wrong.  

What the old saying is getting at, however, is the need to force my idea of 'right' on others at the risk of destroying friendships and good relationships.  Too often, my demanding that I be found 'right' means that my friends and colleagues must accept being 'wrong'.  

Strange, but I have found few people who like feeling 'wrong'.  How about you?  

Often it doesn't matter.  Even if I am found to be 'right' (and damaging friendships in the process) no one really cares.  Nothing changes.  We just won't have coffee together very often in the future, or maybe won't speak to each other in the future.  But the opinion I am 'right' about doesn't change a law, or a belief system in the general populace.  I was right, but I am getting lonely.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.