Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, February 27, 2008


Finish each day and be done with it. You have done
what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have
crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow
is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too
high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson


I wonder, can one do this today?? I know when I get to the end of a day, I’m not at all sure that I have “done what you could”. In fact, I know I usually haven’t. Is this because I am a life-long procrastinator? Or because it’s impossible? Or, perhaps my expectations are too high? And, I find it rather hard to forget the “some absurdities and blunders” that have crept in. I beat myself up about it relentlessly - how in the world could I have forgotten this or that!! And: it’s bad enough to get over one’s own blunders and absurdities, but how can one make amends before the day ends for everyone else who’s been affected?

Or - oh dear - does one just have to work at it! Make it a conscious plan of how to live Life, understanding that it’s sensible and appropriate, knowing you’ll feel better, etc. Would everyone else just go with the flow when I appear at the beginning of the new day serene and in high spirit, unencumbered? Somehow I rather doubt it!

Again, I suppose it’s the “examined life” thing. Barbara Crafton said in a recent eMo about Life, “he builds a self. Then he spends the second half of his life learning how to take it down again, how to take it apart and examine the pieces of it, when to surrender a part of it that no longer makes sense.”

OK. At Compline, we pray for a “perfect end”. I’m now allergic to “perfect”, at least in theory. But I guess we do have to think about what Life will be for us, don’t overdo, try to tie up some loose ends at day’s end (or slightly before), let it go, and meet the new day with a little bit of acceptable amnesia.

About 5pm, have a glass of wine and be glad that things haven’t gone totally awry!

Brian+