You Can't Fight Gravity

A couple of weeks ago, I was walking past the copy room at the office when I noticed a calendar hanging on the wall. It's the 2008 edition of the "Seven Habits" series by Franklin Covey, and it was turned to the January page. There's a quotation in it that I thought was a great synthesis of my personal perspective on things:

"Principles always have natural consequences attached to them. There are positive consequences when we live in harmony with the principles. There are negative consequences when we ignore them. But because these principles apply to everyone, whether or not they are aware, this limitation is universal. And the more we know of correct principles, the greater is our personal freedom to act wisely.

By centering our lives on timeless, unchanging principles, we create a fundamental paradigm of effective living. It is the center that puts all other centers in perspective."

Those principles apply to everyone, whether or not they are aware of them, just like a physical phenomenon such as gravity. Before the word "gravity" was first used, did gravity exist? Surely. Fighting it was futile, and the results were swift and nondiscriminating, and gravity doesn't care that it's not "recognized". It just is, and the principles that the quote refers to "just are", and it's too bad that we're not more focused on figuring out precisely what they are.