Most Ordinary

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Recently, I've been reading a lot about the idea of False.  In a past post, I wrote about how there was no one I was dying to meet; a post about creating false stories of other people and learning to see people truly.  These Falsehoods are pervasive and tend to seep their way into other areas of my life and mind.  


Valentine's Falsehoods

1.  I can't write a book because I haven't had any "extraordinary" experiences.
2.  This person is a much better writer than I.  I should just read his/her work instead of creating my own.
3.  I wish I could work more like that person, I feel incompetent in comparison.


What purpose is served by looking at another and saying to yourself, "I'm less because I'm not like them"?  I have to remember that these people are nothing more than a combination of ordinary experiences and they only seem extraordinary because I haven't seen their journey.  

Magicians are only exciting because you haven't learned the trick.  

V.

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In response to...

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as _____), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother). What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story? List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

(Author: Patti Digh)