About Mistakes

Post 61:

            The Day of Judgment. Pretty heavy fragment to start out with, but what the heck. I’ve read a lot about various religions over the years, trying to hip myself to what was going on in the heads of people long past and people still living. Seems a prevalent idea, judgment. At the end of our lives, there’s an accounting for what we did. Not every culture has one of these traditions, but it’s close to ubiquitous in the human psyche.

            So what’s up, humanity? Seems we got a collective guilty conscience or something. Or we want a post-life narrative that gives what we do in this world more weight. We’ve all got our way of thinking, and I’m no proselytizer, but in my view it all comes down to the fear of screwing up.

            Ever tried to put something together from IKEA? Unless you’re one of those people, you probably put the wrong screw in the thing and had to start over. Probably cursed society and your forefathers and birds and the trees while you were combing through nonsensical instructions before finally coming to your senses and gathering your wits to venture once again into the world of assemble-yourself Scandinavian furniture. I don’t know, just came to mind. All that for Scandinavian furniture.

            We’re a bunch of screw-ups. Plain and simple, self-evident, let’s be honest. What we do with our sad human condition is the only question.

            Only one thing to do. Learn and adapt. Put the screw in the right hole. Say the right thing next time. Work harder, not smarter, but only for that thing, because the next thing, the opposite will be true and smarts will need to carry the load. It’s a bit of a stacked deck if you start counting all the cards, but counting cards isn’t all that productive. One card at a time. Nothing is perfect, especially if you’re doing something from scratch. Maybe a river is perfect, or a rock, or leaf, but those things are what they are. They can’t be better or worse than what they are. That’s the nature of nature, if you’ll indulge me the banality.

            So don’t go killing yourself with self-judgment. Not saying go out there and purposely try and punt, but don’t think your life is an endless series of touchdown drives, either. Geez, the metaphors are flying in from all angles today. Just try, and try to relax. We know not to judge others, so maybe take it easy on yourself.

            Other people are going to judge you anyway. Ha. See you after.