Doing Our Best
We are all just imbeciles doing our best, I said to a friend a few years ago, when someone particularly aggravating was crossing our path. It struck us as both profoundly true and hilarious at the same time. It helped.
When I am getting too caught up, too anxious, irritated by others, that statement helps me. It helps me to forgive myself, certainly to forgive others. It creates a little space, and into that space comes compassion.
None of us know what we’re doing, really. We try, we think we do, we want others to think we do, but truly, what do we know? We are creatures governed by hormones and bodily functions, hurtling through space on a tiny blue dot, surrounded by billions of stars and planets and galaxies, in a universe that is at this very moment, expanding. What could we possibly know?
But we do our best with what we have, we try, we really do. We love one another, try to love ourselves, learn, play, grow, expand. Make mistakes every day, and try again tomorrow.
So whatever it is that is hard for you at the moment, whatever - or whoever - you may be struggling with, just try to remember that we are, all of us, just imbeciles doing our best.
