The Mote

I've been trying to cry for an hour, and I can't. I have the tiniest piece of dust or something in my eye, and it's causing me a lot of pain. If I could cry, I know I could get it out.

Why do the smallest things cause that much pain? It's the Paper Cut Syndrome. It's small, but quick and exact so it stings - like the words of a friend abandoning you or of your parents' disappointment. Those situations can be only a few words long, and hurt much more than hours-long conversations. Have you ever done something wrong and expected a huge tongue-lashing from your parents only to get the quiet head shake and, "We're just disappointed." ? It hurts even worse I think.

On the other end of the spectrum, we allow the little things to make a big impact - money, outward appearance, a misunderstood statement, a miscommunication. We tend to take things that should matter least and make them matter most. Think back to the fights in your life. What have they been about? The yelling matches, the hard conversations, what was at the core of them? Id' venture to guess that some - most - of them can be looked back on in laughter, noting how foolish it was even to worry about something so small. Other fights aren't as easy to break down. But why do we get in fights in the first place that we can later laugh at? Shouldn't we be able to see how silly they are from the onset?

We are the ones who give power to the small things. Humans place such great importance on the smallest of things that they become big. But all human constructs are arbitrary. Like fads in fashion, the things that matter or the things that we focus on can change with the tide, with the decade. They are dust in the wind. That's why we must look outside ourselves for any true morality. And then, we have to try our best not to muck it all by getting involved in it, by practicing it.

I was thinking about ending this thought in a nice little package by saying that sometimes the best solution to a problem, just like the problem with my eye, is to have a good cry, but that seems incredibly wuss-like. Instead, I'll point out that if I can't cry, if I can't get this thing mote out of my eye and it gets worse, I'll have to start sporting an eye patch.

Which I think I'm okay with.