Life the universe and everything in between

Yet again -and at no surprise, another of Rachel’s inquiries into life and her incredible ways with words has captured my attention…

“ Several months ago I wrote a story. It never made it to e-mail press, but it dealt with the beauty of imperfection.

Over the past few weeks I have been having that sensation of brain-overload with an inability to express the emotions which usually can be dealt with through a wee tale or two. Amongst these emotions, there has been a good chunk of embarrassment, disappointment, failure, and nostalgia, whilst at the sametime, euphoria, satisfaction, solidarity, and gratitude.

It was not until the past couple of days, however, that I came to understand the significance of, and common thread to this plethora of emotions, which I now see relate back to the beauty of imperfection. That is, the beauty of our humanity.

It is incredible the frequency with which we try to hide our vulnerability and what makes us human. That is not to say that we should constantly expose ourselves either. Wounds will get infected by criticism if open too long to the world, but if we were never to injure ourselves, and see our own flesh, I believe we would lack a certain self-awareness- that we are human, vulnerable and perfect in our imperfections. If we are to hurt ourselves emotionally and hide the feelings such damage provokes, effectively we are using an unsterilised band-aid which eventually will lead to infection, possibly sepsis and a bittering of our spirits.

By contrast, if we are not afraid to let our injuries air, and let somebody (of course not anybody, but the correct person) see such vulnerability, we can treat the wound and let it heal in its own time.

This leads me to what makes a good author or artist. At high school, whenever they would speak of writing, they would say the best comes from personal experiences, and I would add, exposing oneself to a certain degree, showing the wounds, learning from the scars, and using these experiences to understand one’s own behaviors, those of others, and to learn to relate to people around us. In short, to empathise.

A good drama, take Grey’s Anatomy, for example, or a great film, almost anything from Disney, perhaps Beauty and the Beast, and ask yourself: why are they dramatic? Why do they make us laugh, cry and empathise? I would argue because they reflect the real complexities and fireballs life tosses out. Although we often say these things don’t happen in everyday life, I beg to differ; they show life through the eyes of a good storyteller, through the eyes of those who are not afraid to put their cards on the table and show that despite all bets to contrary, they never had a fullhouse.

A good bridge player will use their dummy hand on the table, that is the weaker, exposed part of themselves, to compliment their own strengths and to hopefully win the grand slam. If the player does not manage to make the contract, the game goes on and the players around them will make the most of the open dummy hand. A misjudgement on our part will never go to waste. As long as we don’t try to conceal it, someone will always benefit.

All this said, in my current state of being, faults might not necessarily be what make us human, but rather remind us we are human. They are what give us the strength to laugh, feel relief and be thankful for the pleasurable experiences we have when we are lucky enough to experience them, to soar above with the sensation that we are super human. Equally, sharing what we perceive as shortfalls, our humanity, can be surprisingly soothing.“

The end.