Walking contradictions
November 30, 2006
“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” – Walt Whitman
In order to thrive, wholeness has to be the priority – not political correctness, or likeability, or protecting your mother’s feelings. But…what if your preferences and the various parts of yourself are seemingly in conflict? Like the MBA who wants to be a stay-at-home mom, or the eco-friendly yoga teacher who wants to be a millionaire?
It’s good – it’s all good if it’s all real. It is infinitely more empowering, not to mention more interesting, to be full of contradictions than to accommodate the status quo.
THIS WEEK: make a short list of your own contradictions. Leave it out where you can see it for a while. Smile when you read it. Learn to love it.
Wholeness demands that we expand – our perspective, our definition of success, and our belief in what’s possible.
November 30, 2006 at 9:05 pm
In order to be whole, we must accept our contradictions, and learn to love them. Now, wholeness is definitely my work in progress. And inconsistencies abound. I often fight them, thinking that if I am to be one thing I must always be just that. It’s steady and reliable that way.
But then, when is life steady and reliable? Life is, by its very nature, fraught with dichotomies. In botanical terms, a dichotomy is a mode of branching by constant forking. What a perfect metaphor with which to see our own contradictions. Put that way, it seems whole. What’s life without a little forking?
One of my contradictions is that I engage regularly and enthusiastically in deep philosophical discussions about everything from religion’s impact on society, the essence of moral ethics, and the intrinsic merits of mascara. I’m deep but I’m shallow. So, yes, I’ll go see the Dalai Lama speak, but I’m going to have to be wearing lip gloss at the time, okay?
If we must expand in order to be whole, and we do, then let’s branch out into our seemingly contradictory parts. And learn to love them.
April 30, 2008 at 3:02 am
Serious (I love yoga, progressivism, and good legislation) and frivolous (I love Christina Aguilera and also the Roots – although one could argue that the Roots aren’t frivolous. OK, Janet Jackson, even before Rhythm Nation).
Why do people take such pains to disapprove of that combination?