Duality

I love watching the sky. The super moons, the solar and lunar eclipses, the stars and all the constellations, and even the sunrises and sunsets. The skies are beautiful, mysterious, and thought-provoking. At the end of the summer this year, I watched the sun and moon live in the same morning sky. It was awesome. This occurred for several days in a row. I even took pictures, loving how different the sky looked in either direction.

I have pondered this for the last several weeks—the idea that two opposites (loosely interpreted😜) could appear (exist) in the same sky at the same time.

But truly, isn’t that how we, as people, are? Everyone acts in ways that are good and bad. We deceive and tell the truth. We are kind and mean. We are courteous and rude. In this way, there is duality in all of us. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde demonstrate this in an extreme manner, but the idea is true. So why do people insist on living in a “cancel culture”? If we actually understood that humans are both amazing and a hot mess, the canceling would stop.

My opinion on this may be unpopular, but I think Christopher Columbus did things that were great and terrible. So did Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Will Smith, and many, many others. So do you. And so do I.

A few weeks ago, I was driving my daughter home from school. She is in the eighth grade and becoming very observant of the hypocrisy in her parents. As we neared home, I saw a school bus and cracked a joke at the expense of one of the kids in our neighborhood. As soon as the words left my lips, I was sorry. My daughter laughed. Hard.

Too hard.

Dang it.

Regretfully, I tried to walk back my comment. I apologized for my words, and to my daughter, but the joke was out there. She was still chuckling. I couldn’t take those words back. I had been mean—me, a 47-year-old woman who knew better—to a little kid, and in front of my very impressionable girl. It was not my finest hour…or maybe a more accurate statement would be it wasn’t my finest couple of minutes.

However embarrassing that moment was, it perfectly encapsulates the duality of me. I picked up my daughter on time from school and listened to all of her things on the drive home. In about 20 minutes, I was totally awesome and really horrible. And while I strive to be amazing all of the time, I understand that sometimes I am not.

Sometimes the sun and the moon are in the sky together.

And that’s OK. For me—and for you.