How many times do you think one person needs to be reminded about the imperfection of the human state? Hmmmm, I suppose it depends on the person really, and what exactly you mean by the imperfection of the human state?
Okay, say that person was me… and the imperfection of the human state – perhaps that we’re all superbly complex and wonderfully simple human beans all at once? That no matter how many layers you peel away, the core message tends to stay the same? Or that nobody has the all answers to anything? Or that we’re all journeying along, bump, bump, bump and trying to get it right?
Imagine you’re making a trip to the top of a mountain and you’ve decided to navigate a certain part of your journey on foot because it looked a little rocky and that seemed oh, kind of sensible. Then you look along to the left (or right – you choose) and you see someone you know (or more likely, someone you don’t) and they’re whizzing along this side path on a bicycle! You think you yourself, “Oh jeez, I suck. I’m going so slowly, plodding along on foot. I should be on a bicycle on that path there – whizzing along just like that person. I shouldn’t be here, on foot, sensibly navigating my own path. Oh rubbishy, rubbishy me.” Meanwhile, there’s a smarter part of you jumping up and down, perhaps with pom poms screaming, “Helloooo! Human remember?! Prone to mistakes, ALL OF US, there’s no need to be quite so harsh or quite so fond of the word should. (*ugh*) All of us wonderfully, wonderfully imperfect. Love you for itJ”
Yeah, so I need to be told ummm, about one hundred million, squillion, gazillion times a minute! (I may be exaggerating here, I may not – please keep guessing.) It is generally as I face another situation where I am setting myself up with a litany of shoulds.
I have no specific situation in mind as I type this, but it does seem appropriate somehow, as the New Year approaches and everyone is summarizing their year, to focus on what’s been the biggest “ah ha!” moment/ series of moments for me. I think it’s these moments when I suddenly realise that the reason for some circumstance, or somebody’s behaviour, even my own behaviour, is not that I don’t have the answers yet or that I’m rubbish, but that we’re all human and therefore liable to be weird in many varied, kooky, complex and fantastical ways!
It brings on a state of freaky compassion for myself and a fondness for being a human bean and other human beans all around. Ah, self acceptance – is goot ja?
Filed under: Deep and meaningful stuff, Nonsense | 7 Comments »
The Secret Life Of Worm Hill 