Do you take the red pill or the blue pill?
In the movie The Matrix (1999), Morpheus offers Neo a choice to learn about what the matrix—the nature of reality—really is:
This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.
Neo chose the red pill.
I love this scene from the movie because it is such a powerful metaphor for our experience of life in the “real world.” How easy it is to go through life taking our experiences at face value without asking questions like: What else might true? Am I really seeing things as they are? What is this experience like for someone else? Taking the red pill speaks to questioning what is and asking the challenging questions with the understanding that what I thought was true might be wrong.
The alternative is take the blue pill by accepting things as they are, which means stopping learning and stopping growing. As Erich Heller said: “Be careful how you interpret the world; it is like that.”
I choose the red pill. As uncomfortable as it may be to admit that I don’t know or I’m wrong, I also welcome the opportunity to engage with others, learn, and grow.
Kindly,
David