"Thus hath the candle sing’d the moth.
O, these deliberate fools! when they do choose,
They have the wisdom by their wit to lose"
Merchant of Venice (Act II - Scene IX)
We are imperfect. We are impermanent. Not a hard notion to get your head around. You would think so, but thinking warps reality as much as it clarifies it.
Our imperfection is an elusive and beautiful butterfly. We catch a glimpse of it, but fail to appreciate its tender beauty. Instead we turn into the moth of attachment and are consume by the flames of our own vanity.
The luxury of debating and writing about learning and growth is sexier than the act itself.
The act of improvement involves shattering carefully constructed self images. We have to confront our own 'deliberate foolishness' as if it belonged to another person.
We are all flawed in one way or other.
Some of us lack the ability to connect to other human beings (listening, empathy, interaction). Others struggle with keeping their life tidy and organized (time management, planning and organizing). Others struggle with thinking openly (defining, designing and leading change).
We know our fatal flaw, our wings have been clipped and sing'd many times in our past, but we continue to move forward (or around the flames of vanity) with a sublime disregard for the inevitable crisp of fire that is about to consume us.
Sometimes we can even see the flaws of vanity, we are conscious of the political and social power that we and others are wielding and yet we persist because the allure of our vanity is too deep, too over powering to abandon.
Perhaps we are condemned to weave the silk of the self consumption and then expire. Perhaps we can see beyond ourselves and through the caterpillar steps, walk gently around our vanity and discover the buds of May and freedom of the spring? This is a very vulnerable position to be in and that is why patient courage is the antidote to self annihilation.
I know caterpillars do get crushed under big feet of busy-ness, but I have never heard of a caterpillar making the long arduous journey into the tip of a burning candle.
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