Hypocrisy. The one ingredient that we all use with varying degrees of regularity and quantity, yet it remains the one ingredient that we all vehemently deny adding to our days. This may very well be the hardest blog - as dictated by my decade old "list" - to digest, because its subject matter is as widespread as the pandemic of justinbieberitis, yet far less recognized and diagnosed by all who suffer from it (and if you believe that you are the only person on earth that has not ever been a hypocrite, I would venture to say that you also plan to deny - to your death - how grotesquely catchy that damn Bieber can be). Look, we have our beliefs, and we have our habits; we have our morals, and we have our practices; we have what we show to the world around us, and we have the rest of ourselves. They simply do not always match and mesh. Plainly put: it is one of those (many) less appealing aspects of the human condition, and the sooner we come to terms with it and accept it, the sooner we can all begin looking inward for symptoms and related cures, rather than projecting the contagion of reflected self-battery onto the emotional immune systems of everyone we meet. The best we can hope for is awareness of our contradictory practices - whether they be few or abundant - and the courage to step outside of them so that - as often as possible - we can allow ourselves to believe what we say, say what we believe, and act accordingly, despite the putrid scent of judgement that may be wafting off of the people around us. **end general thoughts about hypocrisy and its practitioners**
SIDE NOTE: There's another annoying aspect of the human condition that plagues us all: imperfection. And, it is this horrible, awful, disgusting, terrible, deplorable imperfection that pushes us to contradict ourselves in mind, in heart, in belief...in life. No matter what one's opinion may be about God and/or what may or may not come "next," one thing remains constant from one human to the next: our imperfection: the absolute beauty of our imperfection; and once we can wrap our arms around it with pride, the hypocrisy will stop. Why? Because there will be no need to contradict our faulty truths once we have paraded them around. There will be no need to believe one thing, yet practice another. What is hypocrisy if not a cloak behind which to hide the bits and pieces of ourselves that we are too abashedly timid to show the world? What is a hypocrite if not a lowly street magician trying to hide his Heart behind the Ace? We are all walking contradictions to our very own self-illusions brought about by the imperfection of humanity; and for that reason, we continue to move with contrasting strides against the truest version of ourselves: that which extends to the Perfection beyond human existence.
