Jimmy Guterman’s Jewels and Binoculars

I dismiss things too quickly. For example, a while back, when some of my normally astute friends and colleagues were urging me to pay attention to The Secret and its law [sic!] of attraction, I simply assumed it was crazy and I was dealing with crazy people. I’ve got good company in my dismissiveness: See all of this great clip from Julia Sweeney and Jill Sobule, but I’m thinking of what Sweeney says about the law [sic!] of attraction starting around 4:11. (I also just realized — after watching the clip — that I quoted Sweeney without attribution last night. Sorry, Jane.)

Yeah, yeah, but I was reading the usually reliable Zen Habits blog yesterday and I was confronted with not-dismissive post about the law [sic!] of attraction.

Don’t worry. Leo Babauta hasn’t gone nuts. He does note that the law [sic!] of attraction is flat-out wrong. He also acknowledges that it’s pseudoscientific nonsense. But instead of dismissing it, a la Guterman and Sweeney, he goes on to point out what we can learn from it, even if it is nuts. He finds the useful in the dismissable. That’s quite an achievement. I hope I remember this next time someone tells me something I’m inclined to dismiss immediately.

“Any scheme is better than no scheme.”