Being ordinary is extraordinary
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- Created: 28 October 2013
Being ordinary seems to have widespread bad press and can result in many people being very self critical,depressed,and unhappy.The Czech writer Franz Kafka wrote to a friend 'I am dirty, Milena,infinitely dirty'.Kafka turned this into an art form by writing the book 'The Metamorphosis' in which the protagonist wakes up 'transformed into a gigantic insect'.Fortunately,most people are not so extreme in their self judgement.However,striving 'to beat the Jones's' is widespread with self acceptance depending on comparisons with what others appear to have or appear to look like.
It is often heard as a comment that some action or sporting performance is 'pretty ordinary' meaning terrible.This adds to prevailing concerns not to be ordinary in oneself and to have to be bigger and better.The fundamental confusion seems to be a misunderstanding about what it is to be a 'human being' as separate from a 'human doing'.Of course,striving for excellence is a fine attitude but does not have to be at the cost of non self-acceptance.Being ordinary in terms of acceptance of self and others is the most extraordinary recognised quality of people who are most highly esteemed as a 'great person'.The ego inflation is not there in those who are simply being themselves as no different fundamentally to anyone else.Neither better or worse.This appears to be deceptively simple but actually is not so with all the everyday pressures prevailing in society.'Being ordinary' in the sense of self awareness and fundamental acceptance of self and others can be seen as an extraordinary achievement in psycho-spiritual development.
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