Mistakes can be Profited By

I just finished the classic SF story, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. I remember reading the story the first time in college as a warning against censorship. Books and the written words are poison in protagonist Montag's world and firemen, like Montag, set fires to books, rather than put them out. It's a reversed view of the world that is prevalent in much of Bradbury's work: take a common idea and twist it 180-degrees to reveal another logical reality.

While the criticism of censorship is still the initial rage for the book, during this reading (it's probably my third or fourth time), the wisdom or folly of our choices seems a more clear underlying theme. Who of us would not like to have an unwise choice brought back? Who of us would not prefer to be braver, stronger, more confident, than we have been in the past? Who of us have not played life safe because we were worried about consequences of bad choices, of mistakes?

But, what if we do make a mistake? Montag's compatriot and conscience, Faber, chided Montag's preference to blend back into the collective rather than risk individuality: "I know, I know. You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by."

The Montag's choices unveil a hidden beautiful world to him. The consequences of the choices are hard and brutal, this is not a sugar plum fairy-tale, but, Bradbury seems to say, are well worth the pain. After Montag uses a river to escape,  he dramatically rises from the water:

"He (Montag) stood breathing, and the more he breathed the land in, the more he was filled up with all the details of the land. He was not empty. There was more than enough here to fill him. There would always be more than enough."

In the broad strokes of typical Bradbury symbolism, Montag is reborn into a new world and a new purpose. His mistakes opened him up to a world full of hope, even though he knows the world can still be a hurtful, cynical place, and he knows he can still make mistakes. But isn't that a wonderful choice to have?