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Weaving the Critic


There are paradoxes in who I am.  In regards to my critic, I am willing to be confrontational in ways that are constructive and destructive, mostly both, but the results are perceived subjectively.  I have a knack for identifying paradox, maybe it is more modestly a knack for looking for paradox.  I have a desire to find hypocrisy, which is really paradox marked and misunderstood, especially within myself.

Hypocrisy seems to be a consequence of judgment. The blessing I find in hypocrisy seems to be the markers or indicators of paradox, analogous to finding run off patterns on Mars, here I can start searching for paradox.  When I come to find hypocrisy, it reveals my judgmental quality.  Life is fluid and cannot be narrowed into snapshots, leading me to believe that judging for the sake of socializing is toxic.  Judging for the sake of survival is necessary.  Judging for the sake of wellness is desirable.  When judging, I use snapshots or select moments to come to conclusions, versus having compassion for the complex fluidity of life. 

Their is foolishness in selecting, isolating, and highlighting particular blemished events.  Choosing motivates me to ignore the collection of life's memories that effect emotions and behaviors.  Each moment experienced has an investment in our future actions.  In judgement, it is hard to be both critical and compassionate because I need the dualistic objectivity to decipher a choice.  Hypocrisy and contradiction has been necessary to my growth.  I would not have been able to see the plank in my eye, without first recognizing the splinter in my neighbors.  The hypocrite in me has been a blessing in embracing my shadow.

So reflecting on how others judge me or give me feedback is helping me adjust my critical thoughts.  This helps me mark situations and circumstances that create judgmental patterns I can change.  These changes are helping me to connect and create bonds between what I see as hypocritical and my own contradictions.  This is where I dig, I turn over, and I probably over think, but I could do worse, I could be ignoring it. I am forgiving of what I cannot discover and appreciative of the beauty I am finding when most of the time I am expecting to see spoilage.  I am seeing that I am have become a better man.  I am seeing that I am doing the work.  In my search for broken pieces I am finding healing, fused, and stronger parts.  I am allowing my own judgmental quality to exist with less shame and better utility. 

I see how I cross boundaries when being judgmental. Boundaries are important indicators of congruence, like criticisms are indicators of hypocrisy.  My critic does not have a good sensor for recognizing boundaries nor the consequences that come with crossing them.  There is a benefit to my critic to cross boundaries that are oppressive or unjust, but I cannot to have this same attitude with all boundaries, especially those that people put up to protect themselves.  I also see how I am cataloging and collecting better understandings of boundaries.  This is helping with communicating my judgments. I want to learn to be judgmental in a cathartic way, hopefully eliminating the need to identify hypocrisy or contradiction in favor of tolerance and furthermore acceptance.

I can be momentarily contradictory and hypocritical. These moments are reasonably understandable using compassion, again holding them in the perspective that life is fluid.  I am not capable of being mistake free. 

I see being contradictory as a natural quality of being alive.  I am not capable of being constantly pure.  Accepting my imperfection has been revolutionary in my recent willingness to love self.  I never saw myself coming to point in life where I could be writing openly to the world that I am trying to discover how to love myself.  I would not have had the courage to trust that my uncles, cousins, and other men in my life would allow me this gentleness.  The contradiction of being gently strong has never been in my nature.  The idea of being a loving warrior, is a beautiful hypocrisy, most cherished contradiction.

I have striven for perfection and its been futile.  I have put perfection in the crosshairs only to find myself realizing I don't even know what perfection looks like.  When I am contradictory I am usually protecting myself, marking a point of vulnerability.  There is something shameful about being wrong.  There is something convenient about creating a contradiction to remedy being wrong.  I have fears that cause me to protect my delicate ego from being hurt by being wrong.  This is where power and control have come into play.  When I am wrong I feel a loss of power and control.  Acknowledging this is a release.  I find myself not knowing what to do now that I realize I need be comfortable with being incorrect or even corrected.  I find myself overwhelmed with fear of being wrong, a fear of inadequacy.