Volume 7 · The Long Afternoon · Essay 15

Audi Et Alteram Partem Principle

The Audi Et Alteram Partem principle is old wine in a labelled bottle. The label is new; the wine has kept many households steady.

Applied daily, it changes less than you hope and more than you expect. That is how principles work — unglamorous, cumulative, and visible only in photographs taken years apart.

It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.

At the bus stand in a small town, goodbyes are long and arrivals are loud. Both are correct. A life is measured by how seriously it takes each.

In the end, life asks only whether we were awake while it happened. Print it on a card if you like. Better: print it on a habit.