I want to learn the secret of life.
Scratch that.
There isn’t just one secret to life. I’ve already learned many secrets of life. And I’ve written about them. So they aren’t secrets anymore.
I’d like to remember the ones I’ve discovered.
“Good,” a voice says. “Make a list.”
“I will,” I say. And I started. “But first I want to learn another one of the secrets of life. I want to learn the secret of being consistent.”
“What do you mean?” The voice asks.
“I’d like to decide to behave in a certain way and then continue to behave in that way until I decide to behave differently. That’s the secret I want.”
“There’s no secret,” the voice says. “You do something once, then do it again and again until you decide to do something different. You can do something once, can’t you?”
I think about that one. “I don’t seem to be able to do that,” I say. “Sometimes, I start, and I don’t finish. So maybe I’m not looking for the secret of being consistent, but the secret of completing what I start.”
“There’s no secret,” says the voice. “You just start and keep going until you finish.”
I think about that. “I don’t seem to be able to do it,” I say. “I get distracted. So maybe I need to know the secret of not being distracted.”
“No secret,” the voice answers. “Just notice when you start to be distracted and then return your attention to what you were doing.”
I think about that. “I don’t seem to be able to do it,” I say. “Maybe I need to learn the secret of noticing when I start to be distracted and returning my attention to what I was doing.”
“No secret,” the voice might answer. “Just notice what you are doing and then notice when what you are noticing changes to noticing something else, then return your attention to what you were doing.”
I think about that. “I know how to notice what I am doing,” I say. “And I suppose if I noticed I was doing something different, I’d notice that unless I stopped noticing at all. Or I forgot what I was noticing in the first place, so I didn’t notice the difference. So maybe I need to learn the secret of…
“Of what?” the voice asks?
“I don’t know,” I say. “But I think I’ve just learned another secret of life.”
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