The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself in spite of being unacceptable.
Paul Tillich
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Hello Barbados
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I can't think of anyone who frustrates and annoys me more than myself. My life is a living example of Murphy's Law. I need to wear a sign that says "DOLT" when I go out in public so everyone will be forewarned.
I did my income tax today and as usual I got it all finished and in the stamped envelop when I discovered something I forgot and had to redo the whole thing. I used to have it done by the end of February, but these days I have too much to do. I need a personal accountant, lawyer, butler, maid. cook, chauffeur, masseuse, a clinic full of the proper doctors and nurses, a closet full of new clothes, a couple of cats to frolic in the back yard, a dog to walk me every day and a big house to keep them all. In short, I need to be a billionaire so that I would have the people around me to take care of and clean up after the doltish things I do.
Instead I have a few twittery birds on the balcony, eating up all my bird seeds and no one else around (thank goodness) to witness the perilous circumstances I have made and keep making for myself.
I question why I put up with me. No one else would. I think it has something to do with worth, value or permission. I feel i have never achieved and probably never will the one thing that certifies me, that pays the price of having been born, that compensates the world for allowing me to be a citizen of it.
Wouldn't it be something if everything was harmonious? To see the sleek appearance of rightness and fitness everywhere, to realize an unbreakable alliance of beauty and logic, to have one's honest hopes meld into graceful realities, and never have to face problems whose solutions are elusive or questions that have no answers, is to live the acceptable life. Everything is less than, including me.
No I'm not putting myself down. I'm accepting myself as being unacceptable. It gives me something to strive for, and that's probably why I have too much to do. I would have a lot more time to do things it I didn't persist in making doltish mistakes. The only thing I can say for myself is that it's a damn good thing I have a sense of humor.
DB - Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
4 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
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This Week's Contest
This is one I put up a few years ago and people seemed to enjoy it, so here it goes again.
You are now ordered to take a famous remark, a cliche or otherwise and restate it in the most verbose manner possible. Example:
Night is an inappropriate time for the manufacture of animal feed.
(Make hay while the sun shines.)
Get it? Ken Riches won this contest the last time, so you're up against some heavy competition.
5 entries so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Good luck. Enter as often as you wish. The decision of the ornery, biased, curmudgeon is final.
DB
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5 comments:
I haven't read Paul Tillich since studying his "Dynamics Of Faith" in a college religions class, 1969. He was too dynamic for me and when our prof drew on his pipe and asked me, "Geo., why do people have faith?" I said what was foremost in my mind: Fear! Prof tapped out his dottle into the waste basket and asked me to expatiate. I began, awkwardly, doltishly, to express metaphysical distress and was very relieved to see flames rise from the waste basket. Prof panicked, I got up and threw the thing out the window. Sometimes general doltism is our best equalizer.
OMG! Harmonious is a word my body craves...accept the unacceptable is a mantra I've been living, forgetting, living, since the 80's. Thanks for the reminder!!!
I think that there are a lot of other folks who can say the same thing, DB. But they manage to not only overcome but enjoy the negotiation.
It makes for better copy to write of our frustrations. I tend to do so with a wry smile on my face. It also helps me sleep better knowing that I did not submit to the grind and instead not only survived but advanced!
I like Geo.'s last statement that "sometimes general doltism is our best equalizer". That is a good one. Yes, who can stand to be around us more than ourselves? Good thing. Not sure what I would do if I did not see the humour in my doltishness and got to the point where I could not stand to be around myself anymore. Thankfully, it has not come to that point yet.
We are always our own worst critics.
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