The Embarrassment of Being Human
When we are with other people, we usually have reasonable expectations. People have their strengths and weaknesses, and we love them anyway. They get tired, hungry, sick, busy, cold, hot, cranky. They make mistakes. In our heads, we understand that this is the nature of being human.
Yet when it is we who make the mistakes or hit our natural limitations, we can feel quite embarrassed, often even filled with shame. Somehow we hope or expect to be exempt from the human condition; we feel that we should be better, not make mistakes, not have limitations. If we would plan better, work harder, try more, we would be different. We could be the highly-evolved paragon of wisdom and compassion, or the height of perfection, that we secretly feel is possible.
One of the things that we can observe is how much of our mental universe is taken up by the feelings and thoughts that are generated by our basic embarrassment at being flawed and imperfect, and the hope that it could be otherwise.
Next: Loving the Armour
