Familiarity breeds a certain type of blindness or, if you’ll pardon the made-up word, take-it-for-granted-ness.
That’s
part of the fun of taking a trip – not only do you get to go to places
you are unaccustomed to – but when you return, you often see what was
common with new eyes.
And sometimes, it just happens that you see something again for the first time.
While
jogging this last week with Emmett in the stroller and the two dogs on
either side of us, I got to thinking about this newsletter – The 77%
Weekly.
And, I re-remembered one of the points of the newsletter that has recently eluded me – the 77% part.
The
point of sending this newsletter out every Monday except the last of
the month was to remind us all that 77% is good enough; that we don’t
need to strive to be correct 100% of the time. Life isn’t graded after
all, it’s pass/fail.
While meditating I realized how scared I am that I’m going to get in trouble
– how panicked I am that I’m not doing everything “right,” that I’m
going to fail… And, to counter this fear, I’ve been pushing myself to
get an A+ again – to be perfect.
And this, I realize, has been causing me undue stress.
I’m certain you can relate to that feeling.
Rabbi David Wolpe wrote a beautiful article about having flaws that I want to summarize:
We
all have flaws and we do ourselves a disservice when we (try to) hide
these shortcomings from ourselves, others, and often both. Our flaws
make us who we are as individuals – if we were all perfect, we would
all be the same. And while we don’t necessarily need to accentuate our
flaws, we shouldn’t deny their existence either.
How right,
how true! If we present to the world that we are perfect, why would the
world or the people in it need to give us love?
There’s a wonderful song by Billy Joel that could serve as the anthem to this issue: You’re Only Human (Second Wind).
Spiritual-religious reminder for the week: Let us remember that we’re allowed to not be perfect.
Let’s all take it a little easier.
With love,
Rabbi Brian
