If you’ve never changed your mind about anything, you haven’t done enough thinking. And if you haven’t done enough thinking, you haven’t done enough living. I invite you to compile a list of about 10 things you’ve changed your mind about – either recently or long ago. Explain your reasons if you wish. Or don’t. Share your list with others. Or keep it to yourself. But I urge you to give this exercise a try. And on that note, here’s my own list.

1 .“Genetically modified organisms are harmful”.

Sometimes, maybe; but not necessarily more so than any other vegetation. We’ve been consuming GMOs for thousands of years. Agriculture, by definition, entails genetic modification. Granted, the advances in technology have created new possibilities along with an increased need for caution. But GMO doesn’t automatically equate to dangerous.

2. “Transgenders are sick or delusional.”

Prejudices are generally not so much the result of malicious intent as of ignorance; it’s human nature to be suspicious of the unfamiliar. But prejudice vanishes when we learn more about the demographic group in question– either by direct exposure or by reading up on the matter. In my case, both happened.

3.“Prayer is frivolous and useless.”

As a decidedly secular individual, I’ve always considered the concept of prayer a bit weird – and frankly downright egocentric and arrogant .(Petition a Creator who has a Grand Plan for the universe all worked out to the last detail to alter that plan because you don’t like part of it? An omniscient Creator who already knew what you’d want to happen long before you were born and chose to do things differently? C’mon, man.) But while I still have very mixed feelings about religion, I’ve come to realize that prayer is harmless and apparently even beneficial; research shows that it can have benefits that are not dependent on religious faith.

4 .“Institutional racism is a thing of the past in America.”

Um, no it isn’t. Not by a long shot. And there are numbers to prove it.

5 .“U.S. military involvement is Southeast Asia was a mistake.”

This was a huge bridge for me to cross, being of the hippie generation that protested the Vietnam “war” (which was never actually a war). I was even prepared to leave the country to avoid being drafted and sent over there myself. But while we may have had a valid point at the time – perhaps U.S. troops should have been withdrawn by then – intervening in the first place was probably the right thing to do. Imperialist aggression in any country is bad for the whole world. And now that I’ve spent more than a year living in Cambodia and have become quite familiar with the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, I’m inclined to feel that any nation that has the ability to stop that sort of thing has a moral obligation to try.

6.“Modern art is pretentious and worthless”.

The term “modern art” encompasses a great deal of territory – some of it pretentious and worthless, and some of it astoundingly brilliant. Because it tends to be far less representational than traditional art, it often requires more knowledge of technique to appreciate. But it’s well worth the effort.

7. “JFK Conspiracy”.

Yep, I was once a believer – “magic bullet theory” and all. Like others who are drawn into conspiracy theories, I drew unwarranted conclusions from incomplete information – and assumed that a given anomalous fact must have only one possible explanation. But the more I learned about the episode, the more the conspiracy narratives crumbled. Occam’s Razor demands the inference that Oswald was probably a lone nut. Believing otherwise should require a solid body of solid evidence. So far, nobody has come close to producing it.

8. “Ethnic sports mascots are no big deal.”

Cleveland Indians? Atlanta Braves? Chicago Blackhawks? Washington Redskins? What’s the problem? Isn’t the carping about such names and their accompanying caricatures just an example of “political corrects” run amok? I might have gone along with that attitude to at least to some extent once upon a time – though I never jumped on the bandwagon of ridiculing “political correctness” But that was before I had conversations on the topic with activists from the American Indian Movement. I learned that this demeaning/ diminishing iconography has a subtle but real effect on the self-esteem among Native youth; and that Native Americans have an exceptionally high rate of suicide. So are the names and mascots of sports teams actually detrimental to a culture’s mental health? Who knows? Ultimately, I just decided that it doesn’t cost anything to be respectful and considerate. Call me “woke” if you must.

9. “There’s little difference between the two major political parties in America.”

This is surely the most absurd of them all. Okay, so my flimsy excuse for this one is that I never voted in an election until I was nearly 40, so I just didn’t pay that much attention to politics. But anyone who has been paying much attention at all to the events of the past half century couldn’t possibly confuse the two parties. From 1961 to 2017 (28 years under each party in the White House) the administrations of one party had 7 criminal indictments, 3 convictions, and 1 jail sentence. The other party racked up 126 indictments, 113 convictions, and 39 jail sentences. And then between 2017 and 2021, that same party shattered all previous records for criminal activity. There’s always been a huge difference between the parties; and the rift has grown much larger in recent years as one party has embraced authoritarianism, unhinged conspiracy theories, and a widespread, concerted campaign of disinformation on numerous fronts. Only one party burglarized the headquarters of the other party. Only one party sold arms to a hostile nation and funneled the proceeds to drug-running terrorists in Central America. Only one party used family connections in state government and on the Supreme Court to seize the White House. Only one party nominated a convicted criminal to be president. Only one party systematically spread vicious lies about fraud when it lost an election. Only one party mounted a violent attack on the Capitol in an effort to overturn an election. Only one party attracts Confederate flags and swastikas.

10. “Wal-Mart is evil”.

Granted, it’s not a good look that the Bentonville Beast engages in heinous labor practices and sells cheap crap made in Chinese sweatshops; or that it drives out Main Street businesses, thereby destroying the unique flavor of American communities. But on the other hand, it’s a major leader in green energy practices. And a heavy-duty patron of the arts; among other things, the company has sponsored a truly phenomenal art museum (Crystal Bridges) with free admission. Mind you, I still don’t feel good about shopping there, so I generally avoid it. But I’ve come to realize that no corporation is all bad – or all good.

11. “The Beatles are vastly superior to The Rolling Stones.”

Wait, never mind. I don’t think I’ll ever change my mind about this one.