The Double-ended Sword

Cast your mind back about a decade: D&D 3rd ed had just come out and with it came the absolutely absurd concept of "double-weapons". These were basically a pole with, say, a flail on one end and a sword on the other. The idea was that you could wield this contraption as two weapons in combat. Leaving aside the fact that two individual weapons would be far more manageable and less stupid, if you ever tried to use the damn thing in combat all you would actually end up doing is braining yourself with the flail while you tried to slash your opponent.

What has this got to do with anything?

Perception and Expectation are the double-weapon we beat ourselves up with every day of our lives. We carry them around like the aforementioned unwieldy pole allowing them to generally get in the way, hurt the people around us, and bash us over the head when we try to use them. When we are expecting something and it doesn't materialise we can't help but feel disappointed - yet we set the expetation in the first place. As we observe the world we exercise choice over what we perceive those observations to mean - yet we accept that modified perception as truth. And when we hear an ambiguous statement we twist the words into what we were expecting to hear - the worst of both weapons. We determine our own expectations and twist the truth through our perceptions, setting ourselves up for disappointment and failure.

I could go into a lovely analogy about breaking the weapons apart and using them separately, but instead I will say this: Put the weapons down. Do not cloud your observations with what you perceive in your head; instead view the world and those in it with a fresh mind at all times. Do not allow expectations to cause disappointment or distress; instead revel in the joy of all things as they happen every day.

And if you're going to play D&D 3rd Ed, don't pick a character with a double-weapon. Because you're just being a knob.