Humdrum and Humble

You know the old saying, “Pride cometh before a fall”?

Well, this extraordinary being put her underpants on inside out this morning.

Methinks it’s time to talk about humility. I don’t mean self-effacing comments or putdowns. I mean humility as defined in Webster’s Dictionary, specifically “the absence of pride or self-assertion.”

I think it was Professor Ekkles who said that someone who declares herself to be enlightened is probably not. This comes as something of a relief, as I don’t consider myself to be enlightened. I’m just waking up and trying to stay conscious. Blogging about it is part of my process, kind of like bouncing an idea off a friend to get a better grip on it, myself.

When I began to wake up, I was confronted with an unsettling truth. The world was still the same. My life was still the same. I was – and am – changing, but the daily grind remained more of a grind than I thought it would be once I regained consciousness.

Rats.

Then, Zen wisdom was brought to my attention:

“Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.”

I love this saying. It’s a reminder that, no matter how extraordinary I may be, the humdrum beats on and I must march to it. I can view it through a cleaner lens, but at its base, life is still a series of challenges—and just as I may excel at chopping wood, many folks are better at carrying water, enlightened or no.

It’s the same trap that snares higher-educated people. Those letters that pop up after your name when you’ve gotten your degree do not make you smarter than a high-school graduate or someone who had to quit school early to support the family. They just mean that a) you were lucky enough to go to university and b) you know more about your chosen field of study and may be entitled to more money assuming you can find a job in that field. Masters degrees or doctorates don’t make you worthier than anyone else of love or acceptance or kindness or patience except in the egotistically conditional sense, and that has little to do with why we’re really here.

We are all worthy of love and acceptance and kindness and patience, regardless of education or social status—or in spite of it, for that matter. We are all extraordinary. Yet, as I discovered while getting dressed this morning, the ordinary is designed to keep us humble.

With greater love,

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Tears For Fears released a song back in 1995, the title of which I borrowed for this post. It’s an awesome song – hear it here and enjoy!