September 5, 2013
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A secret
There’s a secret that most people never learn.
I forget it all too often myself, even when I keep reminding myself of it’s power.
I don’t remember when I first stumbled across it, but I do remember how it made me feel. It was one of the most invigorating moments in my life, yet it’s far too easy to dismiss. It’s a fairy simple concept, which is one of the reasons it’s forgotten too often.
The principle is ‘acceptance.’
The first time I came across it, it was in an article about improvisational comedy. It was talking about the most basic element that would make or break a scene. You see, for comedy to work, each character has to build on the work of the actor before them, no matter how absurd. Anything that rejects what came before kills the scene. Kills the story. In comedy it’s that continuing absurdity, ongoing and building, that keeps an audience involved, laughing, leaning forward in their seats, not just wanting to see what’s next, but demanding it.
The thing is, acceptance is also behind almost every part of our lives and society.
When we see an advertisement on TV and accept what it says, we go out and buy the product.
When we accept that a leader does know better than us, we follow.
When we accept that we are different because of our color, religion, sex, ethnicity… we choose to be different. We choose to ignore, shun, denigrate, even hate those we don’t accept.
When we accept that everyone is different than us, we can also accept the fact that just because we are all different does not mean that we, or they, are wrong, or evil, or damned…Can we accept this?
Can I?
