Today's Thought - March

[bluidkiti]

March 24

I wasn’t exactly brought up in one of those Norman Rockwell paintings you used to see on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

~Reggie Jackson

We have many myths about other people’s lives. When we compare ourselves to these stories, we come up short. We think of Hollywood families, TV sitcoms, or maybe even those Rockwell paintings that idealized small-town American life in the mid-1900s. We may have stories our father told about his moment of glory and how he met his challenges. Any of these images selects part of the truth and highlights it, creating a myth that might be worthwhile if we don’t take it too literally.

Living real life never feels as serene as our fantasies. A myth lifts us up and carries us away to other possibilities, but we should always take it with a grain of salt. A father’s recollections or a Rockwell painting romanticizes a piece of reality by omitting the drudgery and confusion of life. Myths are meant as inspirations, not as measurements of our lives.

The difficulties and confusion I feel may just be part of real life. Serenity comes when I accept the mixture that real life is.

Today's reading is from the book Touchstones, A Book of Daily Meditations for Men