walk with conviction

To walk with conviction…to walk with confidence, purpose, strength; to walk with a sense of knowing one’s goal; to walk with courage, direction, certainty…that is my latest philosophy on life…I did not get this philosophy from some ancient source, or from some spiritual or religious path; I did not get it from any of the disciplines concerned with questions of how one should live; I did not base it on philosophical doctrines, such as realism, skepticism, existentialism, or pragmatism; it does not stem from either Western or Eastern philosophies; it did not come from Immanuel Kant, Jean-Paul Sartre, or St. Thomas Aquinas; nor did it arise from Aristotle, Plato, or Socrates. Instead, my latest philosphy of life developed during a few moments of my life when I experienced crossing a street in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In last week’s blog, I wrote about the traffic in Vietnam, and how what one could perceive as chaos, I found to actually be cooperation. All of the hundreds of cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, and cyclos, weaving in and out and amongst each other, with no real lanes being followed, doing so effortlessly and smoothly. But what happens if a pedestrian, such as myself, needs to cross the street in a busy city such as Hanoi? Yes, there were a few places where there was a stoplight and a crosswalk; but even there, some mode of transportation was still moving. Most of the time, there was just a crosswalk, in the middle of the street, without the aid of a stoplight. So, one has to get from point A to point B, with the various vehicles weaving in and out of each other, and with no real great point in time where there would be absolutely no vehicles moving whatsoever.

So, how does one do this; cross the street in the cooperation of perceived chaos? The goal, of course, besides getting across the street, is to also avoid being hit, and also to try not to disrupt too much the cooperation of the traffic that was already in existence. Before I took the plunge myself for the first time, I observed a few of the local people, and how they crossed the street. I watched how they walked, and how the traffic moved around them. And I thought, well if they can do it, so can I!

From my observations, I decided that the way to succeed was to just walk. Walk with conviction and confidence. Walk with a sense of purpose and strength. Walk with knowing your goal, and having the courage to know your direction. Walk with being certain of where you came from, and where you are going. Well, ok, maybe I am exaggerating just a bit, as of course one needs to also still pay attention to the vehicles, and have some sense of timing, too. But amazingly, what happens is the drivers of the vehicles incorporate the pedestrians into their cooperation. They weave around you, too. They do this effortlessly, and with great timing.

And, like that, I crossed my first street!!

Once I accomplished this, as I was at point B, I thought what if life could be approached with the same ideas that I just used to walk across the street? What if I could walk through life with conviction and confidence? What if I could walk through life with a sense of purpose, strength, courage, and direction? What if I could be certain about life, and my goals, and where I was going? Of course, I would still need to pay attention, and also maybe have some sense of timing. But, from that moment on, I decided that one way I could approach my life was just like the way I crossed the streets of Vietnam…with conviction…

Sweet Travels!