Untitled

I pulled this from the deep recesses of my hard drive or thumb drives or from papers crammed together in bent and torn manila folders in my filing cabinet. I think it stands the test of time and I’ll add it to my work on transformation.

Enjoy and comment! And quit complaining!

It’s Not Fair!

We struggle with shards of a reality we think is broken. Maybe there are no shards and maybe reality just is? My daughter’s famous struggle – famous because she shouts every hour to the entire neighborhood – is “But it’s not fair!” Lots of people will chime in with her, and what we are really saying is that life, and the world, and relationships, and stuff shouldn’t be like this. But it is. And your sense of what should and shouldn’t be won’t change that. In other words, it doesn’t matter much.

“The folder should be placed right here. Alphabetically. Right? How can I find it if people won’t put it away, right? Sheesh!”

“You want daycare at the high school? C’mon! Sixteen-year-olds getting pregnant? You want to support that?”

There’s a common theme here for every single person: we are the arbiters of our right and wrong. We impose our ideas on what is and want to bend it to satisfy us. What’s interesting is that at the very moment that we impose right or wrong on a thing, we move everyone who thinks differently out of the way. Their ideas aren’t important. We speak the truth and they don’t sync.

But – just like you regarding others – no one cares what you think and you’re wasting your time. Shoulds and shouldn’ts mean little. This is nothing new. No one has ever cared.

The folders are sorted as they are, and people make mistakes putting things away. Young girls get pregnant. You don’t have to like this reality, and you can always change it. But you have to recognize a thing before you can change it.

Listen to yourself this week. You’ll be surprised at how many times you complain about how something is off-kilter. Recognizing this is the first step in seeing reality as it is. And accepting it. Accepting reality. Then think about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advice: never complain about a thing unless you have a plan to fix it.

Selah

Huh?