CrankyBuddhist   the learning never ends …

I used to be one of those people. I used to be in that group of folks who will criticize anything because it is absolutely not perfect enough. I’m not so much like that anymore – maybe that comes with age, or a decrease in hormones …

I have another blog, called Small Rock Big Universe, where I post on environmental and green living topics. I’m no expert, but, just like in Buddhism, I’ve been practicing and studying for decades. Which is a lot longer than a lot of people.

Part of my goal for SRBU is not necessarily to tell people what’s best for them, but to suggest things that might make their lives greener. It’s really hard for people who have never been environmentally minded to change their habits and find new ways of doing things. SRBU is also about celebrating new ideas, concepts, and breakthroughs that move us toward be a greener society. They may not necessarily be perfect ideas, concepts, or breakthroughs, but they are moving in that direction.

So far I’ve only attracted comments on how wrong I am. No one gets the idea that we should be celebrating baby steps.

As I sit underneath the redwood trees I contemplate the idea that people, no matter who they are, are perfect. It’s almost an abstract concept and in the abstract I get it. I even honor it and the thought makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. People are perfect.

But I’m sitting underneath the redwood trees and I haven’t seen another person in at least twenty-four hours, and I probably won’t see another person for another twenty-four, until I take a walk into town and probably interact with one or two.

It’s easy to know that all people are perfect when I am isolated from them. The true test of keeping this thought is in the everyday interaction with the folks at the grocery store, in traffic, at school or work or wherever. It’s not so easy living in a community where everyone is self-centered-rightiously right all of the time, even though they all have different opinions about the same thing, and keeping their perfection in the forefront of my mind. Sometimes I just want to smack a few of them.

But I don’t. Smack them, that is.

Instead I just watch them doing what they think is right, saying what they think is right, and accepting that as the perfection that they are in the moment. It’s all I can do.

And then I return to my spot underneath the redwood trees.