Best vs Ideal

Doing our best
does not guarantee
an ideal outcome.

In fact,
what doing our best can do
that doing less cannot
is expose to us
our limitations.

In such a way
that we become motivated
to either
accept our limitations
with our whole heart
or
embark on a journey of development
to extend the boundary
of our limitations.

Connection

We look at our hands
and see the fingers,
often forgetting to appreciate
the spaces
between them.

Yet,
without spaces
there are no fingers.

In much the same way,
we may look at a chain
and see the connections,
forgetting to appreciate
the boundaries
between them.

Yet,
without boundaries
there are no connections.

On Sacrifice

When we
hyper-empathize,
the distinctions and boundaries
between “self”
and “other”
vanish.

So when we feel
the “other”—
be it a person,
a thing,
or an idea—
is in danger,
it feels as if we
are in danger.

This makes it natural
for us to throw ourselves
onto incoming traffic
to save the lives
of such
an other.

To us,
this does not feel
like a sacrifice.

It merely feels
as if it’s a universal
human
reflex.

So much so
that sometimes
we think the other
would have done the same
for us.

Whether or not
that is true
is beside
the point.