Take O.U.T. — One Useful Thing, and Anti-Partitioning
I go to Cabela’s Online Store and I discover that Cabela’s sells among other things guns. They have rifles. They have pistols.
I am against guns. Do I need not to patronize them?
Instead I try to practice “Take O.U.T.,” finding the “One Useful Thing”
I seek a single (at least) valuable thing or lesson or… that is take-able from a situation that is otherwise not necessarily positive.
This does not mean I have to find the whole situation good. Just one useful thing. And it does not mean that I am reconciled to the originating situation. One can appreciate the Volkswagen (both as a car and as an idea — the small and affordable car in a world where most were large and expensive) even though it was developed by the Nazis.
Do we always need to take a stand by boycotting? I submit, “No.”
“One Useful Thing” is in itself a political position: I refuse to partition the world into non-overlapping sets (in this case, “good” and “bad.”)
So at Cabela’s I look around. I have found more than One Useful Thing.
- Ah, look at those vests! And those excellent prices on some shirts. When I need a shirt, likely I will be back here. That is useful.
- More surprising to me was that in the hunting substore, they sell trail cameras. I never thought of a hunter’s store as a source of do-no-harm game tracking. That is both interesting and useful.
By refusing to put my nose in the air and march off, by practicing “Take O.U.T.” I strike a blow against partitioning and self-righteousness.
I find more useful things in life. I still do not buy guns. And I get to enjoy Cabela shirts.
You can buy the cardboard box in the image at https://abrahamdist.com/product/1-folded-takeout-boxes/ .
