The Art of Overlooking 

Unpleasant Manifestations

“It’s a sin to fry a rainbow.”

                            ~Stanley Moss

First, take this quiz.

Is life pleasant all the time? 

Are people pleasant all the time? 

Should people be pleasant all the time? 

What is actually occurring when we are being baited by another?

What is the proper response to an insult, inadvertent or otherwise? 

Does chronic behavior signal unconsciousness?

As we age, are we meant to become more like ourselves?

What about those who think it best not to?

What about those who live to evolve according to their highest values?

Is it foolish to want to live up to another?

What is the proper measure of being?

If the thought of comparing ourselves feels like a blatant absurdity, 

are the very nature of sports a proclivity toward sin?

At what point does chronic behavior signal mental illness?

If disease is dis-ease, how soon do telling symptoms arise?

Does our urge to control life control us?

Can people behave other than they are? 

What is more important, being true to oneself, or true to others?

Are there times when we cannot be both?

Is overcoming the self a form of self denial?

Is an affinity for affliction the ego’s way of insisting on self-importance?

Is it ever appropriate to hold up a mirror to another in a social setting?

Does the consequence of recognizing a thing

outweigh the consequence of not recognizing it?

Is it ever appropriate to resent others

for not knowing what we know?

When we realize another’s selfishness,

will we be made aware of the selfishness in ourselves, 

and vice versa?

Is the price of achieving no illusions

the tendency towards seeing others in a harsher light?

If people know not what they do, and it is a fool’s errand

to attempt to change them, 

perhaps the best way to forgive is to overlook

without disparity.

The rigor with which I muse on myself

needed tempering when the same

light fell on others.

Peter Valentyne

April 19th, 2019