I Envy Black and White Thinkers

Life would be so much easier if I could view ideas or issues through a black and white prism, but as many times, as I have tried, I cannot seem to do it. Give me any idea, any issue, anything, and I immediately start thinking it to death. I would like to be able to strip nuance, contradiction and complexity out of my thinking process so I can quickly make a decision as to whether I am for or against; like or do not like; good or bad and get on with my life.

In this fast-paced world of ours, it is increasingly difficult to keep up when situations call for immediate feedback all the time. People do not have the time to contemplate or reflect…they want all their information in a headline or a sound byte; simplistic terms that take little time and effort to comprehend.

Paradoxically, my emotions tend to be very polarized and I have little patience in many areas of my life, but somehow, my strong feelings provoke me to search out all the complexities that underlie much of what is making me feel a certain way. In fact, the stronger I feel about an issue, good or bad - moderate is not in my emotional vocabulary - the more I want to know every last detail. This is not a bad thing in many ways because this process usually helps to balance my emotions for the most part, but not always. The dig-up, discover and examine process can cause feelings, one way or another, to be more intense than ever before.

I guess I tend to have a dialectical view of reality when it comes to ascertaining what I believe in. It is unusual to come across an issue or system of beliefs that does not have antithetical concepts interacting with one another, from religion to politics to raising children ECT. My problem is that it would take many lifetimes to come up with a definitive answer to even a couple of these issues.