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Sunny and I made ugly waffles today. Ok, I admit it: his was actually pretty handsome, that is, before it was devoured in a few bites. Mine was special ugly. It was ugly enough to make his waffle ugly too.
I quote from my journal, June 23, 2006: "It's like what one old Asian guy once said. 'If someone offers you a part of something, and not the whole thing, accept the part happily, for it is an improvement; a crumb is always more than nothing.' Maybe he was Greek. Anyway, even if it's not what I want, I'm just going to have to pop this crumb in my mouth and smile as I taste it. [Later] And how would you know if you never tasted it; the crumb you could have tossed to the ground may be the sweetest part of the whole cake."
The same can be applied to waffles. Ugly waffles may actually be very good.
I think the trick to contentment may lie somewhere in between not anticipating the situation in the first place, and not projecting self-imposed (extrovertial) desires into the situation. If I didn't have a preconcieved notion of what a waffle ought to look like, I would not want it to look a certain way and would not be upset when it turned out Ugly. If I happened to have an emotion provoked by the thought of waffles it would get more complicated, and further away from Contentment. When we put our desires into things we don't have complete control over (and I can't think of a single thing of which I have absolute control over), we're letting our emotions be tied to something that will surely fail us. I think the trick to contentment may have something to do with the acceptance of things the way they are and the way they fall.
A lot of situations grow and develop in ways I don't like. They don't give me everything I think they should, they aren't enough for me, they are crumbs. They are Ugly. If I didn't think a situation should be a certain way and want it to be a certain way, it could be Ugly, and Ugly could be Beautiful. Perhaps then there would be no more Ugly or Beautiful, and we could see that is it Good.
Yes, sometimes Ugly waffles can be quite Good.
The same can be applied to waffles. Ugly waffles may actually be very good.
I think the trick to contentment may lie somewhere in between not anticipating the situation in the first place, and not projecting self-imposed (extrovertial) desires into the situation. If I didn't have a preconcieved notion of what a waffle ought to look like, I would not want it to look a certain way and would not be upset when it turned out Ugly. If I happened to have an emotion provoked by the thought of waffles it would get more complicated, and further away from Contentment. When we put our desires into things we don't have complete control over (and I can't think of a single thing of which I have absolute control over), we're letting our emotions be tied to something that will surely fail us. I think the trick to contentment may have something to do with the acceptance of things the way they are and the way they fall.
A lot of situations grow and develop in ways I don't like. They don't give me everything I think they should, they aren't enough for me, they are crumbs. They are Ugly. If I didn't think a situation should be a certain way and want it to be a certain way, it could be Ugly, and Ugly could be Beautiful. Perhaps then there would be no more Ugly or Beautiful, and we could see that is it Good.
Yes, sometimes Ugly waffles can be quite Good.
2 comments:
Yep! We really fell flat on our faces making those waffles, and yes, they were still good! Better luck next time, I suppose!
Hey there - I found your blog through our common listing of the movie "Reign Over Me". Love your writing and your way of thinking... and it looks like we were on opposite sides of the Paraguayan/Brazilian border (I was in Campo Grande) at the same time... fun, huh?
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