This week life kicked me in the teeth. Come to think of it, last week life kicked me in the teeth. And looking ahead I strongly suspect that next week life will kick me in the teeth. It is humbling to think that as a human, I may deserve it. It is even more humbling to realize that even if I don't completely deserve it, I also don't not deserve it. And even more humbling is that though I may deserve it more or less than another, I don't not deserve it any more or any less than any other. I would like to think that I am more special but I am not. Nobody is. The good news: I can pretend and even (for periods of time) convince myself that I am extraordinary and that life is not repeatedly kicking me in the teeth.
The good news is bad news. It explains why we are stuck - on our current trajectory - far from judicious - intent on destruction - bound for extinction.
The reason I don’t not deserve it is because life is random and arbitrary. And even those who pretend, and even those who are convinced otherwise, are still getting kicked in the teeth; just perhaps more often from the inside than from the outside.
To pretend is to maintain. To seek to understand and to acknowledge is to create potential to move ahead, improve, progress. This search for understanding enables one to more clearly differentiate between a random, arbitrary kick in the teeth and one brought about by a personal misstep, though a personal misstep from pretense and certainty is typically misinterpreted as random and arbitrary.
This brings us to Russian dolls. A personal misstep judged within a system or convention or circumstance that is a misstep itself, may not be a misstep within a different or greater context. Do I choose power, financial security, and comfort? Or do I choose Beauty, Truth, Wisdom, and Justice? In this country today, to choose Beauty, Truth, Wisdom, and Justice is a misstep - within a misstep - within a misstep - within a misstep…
So what do I do? Do I choose to march in step with convention? Or do I continue to flounder-careen-blunder-misstep about within a consensus context?
I suppose It depends upon circumstance.
