Mistakes and Mishaps

Doesn't it bug you when you make little mistakes? No? Well, it bugs me. I recently went for a haircut. I have been looking at photos at the hair dresser's for years trying to find something that is both "new" and "me" at the same time. I showed a photo to the stylist and talked about my thoughts on what I might like to do with my hair. Non-committal, as usual. On the way home I realized that I had mistakenly identified Keira Knightly as Winona Rider in the pic. No biggie, right? I got that squirmy feeling inside at having made a silly mistake. So, what's the big deal? I found that one easier to shake off than others, but I still had a few moments of discomfort at the realization. Maybe I would have felt better if I blamed someone else for my mistake... Why do they use photos of celebrities any way? Who really knows all those people? ...Nope, doesn't work. Still my mistake.

So, maybe you are okay with your own mistakes, but get really peeved at the mistakes of others that affect you. Maybe you'll identify with this one. My daughter recently applied to be a part of an educational travel group. First, she got a call saying she was accepted. Yippee! Later that night we got another call saying the first call was premature. What? Eventually, we heard that she was not accepted to the program "at this time". But the first mistake precipitated a number of positive communications from the national office until the withdrawal went through their whole system. She has handled the whole thing pretty well, but I became a bit annoyed. What if my daughter had been heart-broken? What would all this see-sawing do to her then?   I was polite and understanding in my phone contacts to clear things up, but I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to have her sign up with this organization again if she had another opportunity.

Yes, we all make mistakes. Not one of us is perfect. We know this, but we don't really practice it, do we? Somehow, we still expect perfection of ourselves and others.  Why is that? Honestly, I think we were created for perfection, but that perfection is not within our grasp on this earth. We are continually disappointed. "What a tease!", you may think. Well...yes, I think it is meant to be a tease. If perfection were available in this life why would we hope for anything else? If perfection is only available in the life to come, then that desire for perfection makes sense, and our constant disappointment on earth becomes a reminder of our need to hope for something better. For the many who don't believe in a life to come those constant disappointments can be life-shattering and cause them to lose hope completely.

So, I am reminding myself that this is not all there is. Those little mistakes don't really matter in the big scheme of things, not just my own mistakes, but the mistakes of others. In the long run, they are reminders that I am just passing through, making the most of this journey, on the way to what really matters. Perfection really does exist, it's just out of my reach... for now.