No Perfect People

Hullo again!

So, I realized, I should probably explain another goal of this blog (before you roll your eyes at how planned everything is let me finish). One of my goals is to write in this blog at least once a day. I've tried writing blogs before and find the prospect of public writing so terrifying it completely paralyzes me. As I only half explained in the first post... I tend to go in circles about the perks of public writing... and publicity in general.

The problem with publicity in the United States (or perhaps in culture in general) is that it tends to inflate self-importance in a completely misleading or unnecessary fashion . My pastor speaks of the phenomenon where you post something on the World Wide Web, wait five minutes, and push the refresh button to see if someone has responded. If no one responds, the temptation is to feel immediately deflated. Yet if you do have a good response, the internal reaction is an over inflation both of your importance and influence. My conviction is this: Every person has something unique and important to contribute.

So what don't we all believe this? And why do some people become icons or idols? While I do blame some things on what we are fed through social media, some of it is our fault as well. If everyone has something unique and important to contribute - why aren't we discovering it about the people around us? The weird thing about social media is that it causes huge public disclosure to people we've thrown into positions of status for no real reason except their ability to entertain. I think people pay attention to celebrities partially because so much of their life is promenaded around for us. Really it's quite disturbing the paparazzi has so much ability to invade in their privacy... and that we are interested in it. I wish we could be more interested in the people's lives around us. Communion cannot exist with a celebrity. It can exist with the people you meet at the store, your class, work, the gym, on the plane, in your religious gathering, etc. 

Sorry tangent. Back to the writing daily. The key to committing to write daily is that it allows for me not to get stuck on perfecting what I'm saying. Any creator, writer, artist, can get too wrapped up in the final product - especially if the art is public and we are concerned about public opinion. Part of the reason I have failed in the my writing previously, is because I have succumbed to the numbing fear of how others will perceive my work.

I can promise you that I will probably offend you, confuse you, disagree with you, surprise you, and possibly even mislead you. In real life... that's what people do. We long for perfect relationships where people don't let us down and agree with most things we care about.  But the thing is... that type of relationship doesn't exist. Part of the experiment of writing this blog - is to show the things we have in common that can hold us together against all the fractured differences. 

Starting tomorrow, I go back to work... which means a 12 hour day. I can promise you my next post will be nearly incoherent and possibly completely meaningless. When you work a 12 hour day as a nurse putting every fiber of your being into best serving those people in front you and your co-workers... there's not much left at the end. And really, I'm not sure about the coherency of this post... hahaha. Oh right... no perfect people! My church has a phrase "No perfect people allowed" which I think is so beautiful. This blog is going to break down my issues with perfectionism and image... and leave you with the messy, genuine, ridiculous me. 

 

Liz

#Noperfectpeople