I was reflecting this morning on a passage I came across recently, these words: "... and at once it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously—I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason." - Poet John Keats in a letter to a friend, 1817.

I love the idea. Whenever something happens that we don't understand, Positive Capability responds immediately with Fight, Flight, or Figure it Out Fast. Negative Capability takes a breath and takes it all in, lives with it a bit, is open and observant, poised and peaceful and willing to acknowledge what it does not yet understand. It doesn't rush to judgment or to propound a quick theory. It takes in the new real and absorbs it, perhaps even pondering at a deeper level than conscious thought. It is before it does. "Negative" here means the lack of inner and overt reaction, a pause, a being-with. If we cultivated more of that, to be and walk in uncertainty, and mystery, and perhaps doubt rather than rushing headlong into a next misadventure, think how different the world would look. Yes. Sometimes we must act. But more times than we might imagine, it would be good not to act too quickly and just be for a while. When we cultivate real wisdom, we begin to know the difference.