Every day we face the collision between the way things work
and the way they ought to work. Drivers
who don’t know how to drive, health insurance with terrible customer service, airlines
whose only concern is making more money, politicians acting irrationally,
doctors and nurses who don’t have time to call you back, professional baseball
players making millions of dollars and hitting 229., and you have your own
list. Whether it’s driving, serving
food, being a politician, a doctor, a professor, a farmer, a police officer, a
spouse and even God. Is anything working
the way it should? The culture and the
world seem to be declining, becoming more and more rude, crude and lewd.
Are our expectations too idealistic? Are they unrealistic? Are they completely unreal? What gives?
I suppose we could say we are expecting too much of
people. It’s true human beings can be
ambiguous, inconsistent, unreliable and unpredictable. And they are subject to stress, lack of
sleep, over multitasking, illness, marital and familial problems, and all sorts
of distractions. Such is the nature of
human nature and American contemporary culture.
Our expectations and standards may indeed be too high and entitled.
But where is the line?
Where is the line between making excuses for people and expecting
excellence? When are we asking too much
and when are we not asking enough?
To be sure, excellence is the goal. It is unreal to expect excellence all the
time. But it is possible some of the time. Every day I experience some people driving very
well, some students working hard and caring about learning, some politicians speaking
and doing the truth, some administrators sensitively doing right by their
employees, some people acting with integrity and character. As
human beings, we do have the capacity to act in an excellent way. We also have the capacity to act less than
excellent. We have different abilities,
moral dispositions and moods which come into play in a variety of ways every
day, affected by a myriad of controllable and uncontrollable factors. But we
can do what we can do.
Each day we run after the ideal, appreciate the real, and
try to avoid the unreal. These three are
usually mixed together in complicated measure.
It can be exasperating. Such is
life. But, don’t be pessimistic or
optimistic about everything. Face the
realness of life with your refusal to give up or give in
Finally, despite the craziness of life, see the world for the
mysterious inconsistent chaotic mixture it is and be grateful that you are here
one more day to experience its crazy colorful collage. Be thankful.
Be as excellent as you can be. And
that is what’s real!
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