Deal With It!

A hard reality we must accept.

Each time I look at this graph, I realize that there is no way to avoid the fact that we will always have people in our population at early stages of development. There will always be people who are young, hence at earlier stages. There will always be people whose growth is delayed. There will always be people who have not developed because their life conditions have not allowed for it (see Maslow’s hierarchy of needs).

Just as we cannot be taller or shorter, genius or more talented, there is no way to move everyone on the chart to the right end. It’s practically a matter of physics!

Just as we cannot always get what we want, always be happy, always have a great day, or avoid illness or aging, we must deal with the reality of ideas and behavior that are selfish and destructive to our common well-being. Life is always a beautiful mess, the full catastrophe.

This is very important, and simple:

Deal with it. Let it go. Move on.

…

Hint: if you are Orange, Green, or Yellow, avoid

• preaching

• blaming

• shaming

• labeling

What’s left?

• listening

• accepting

• comforting

• loving

I must say, this is hard work. This is developmental work. I often feel I am at a rudimentary stage of this work.

To that end, I’m listening to Richard Rorh’s audiobook, The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis. I will probably listen to it several times as it gradually sinks in.