None of us live up to all our spoken ideals.
We pretend we do to feel good about ourselves and gain the respect of our chosen groups.
I will be the first to admit that my spoken ideals are at times aspirations more than actualities.
Its easy to hold up this gold standard as to how a human being should live in the world.
It is much harder to attain that gold standard.
It may be impossible.
The ideals and the gold standards are what show up in blogs, and podcasts, and youtube, and social media.
They don’t show up in everyday life.
Yes, some areas of life seem easier for some people.
Don’t be fooled, they struggle too.
There are no perfect people.
I have lifestyle choices I don’t live up to.
I’m a vegan.
In the first two weeks of cutting out meat, I once ate a whole chicken breast for a dinner before I even realized what I was doing.
I try to live with zero waste.
I bought a coffee the other day without my thermos. I threw the cup in the trash. It now lives in a landfill.
I try to live out minimalism.
I have nine library books checked out at this very moment. There is no way I can read nine books in two weeks and I don’t intend to. That’s not minimal!
The ideas and lifestyles that bring value can be hard.
What I’m getting at is the idea that we’re all on the journey.
My wife says its a spectrum.
Our job is to aspire and then give it our best shot.
We’ll mess up.
We’re human.
That doesn’t mean we’re bad people.
That doesn’t mean other people who mess up are bad people.
Recognizing my own shortcomings helps me have compassion and empathy towards the people around me.
I’m aspiring and attempting.
Just like them.
We’re all on the journey.
We’re all on the spectrum.
Let’s keep aspiring.
Let’s keep giving it our best shot.