Have you
ever seen something like this happen?
One person presents something they made or did. It could be anything, a painting, a story, a
quilt, something they are quite obviously proud of or they wouldn’t be showing
it off. Yet when others compliment it,
this person proceeds to point out every flaw, every mistake, and everything
they felt they could have done better.
I haven’t
just seen this happen, I have done it myself.
I don’t know what it is, maybe it is an attempt to be honest or humble,
but more likely, we are just being overly critical about our own work. Why do we do that?
I can
understand why we would see the flaws in our own work. When we make/paint/sew something we know all
the ins and outs of that project. We see everything. At least we see everything that is wrong. When others see our projects, they see
something beautiful that someone made.
Why don’t we see all the things that worked, all the beauty, all the
skill? But it isn’t even enough that we
see the flaws, we feel the need to point them out to everyone else.
I will admit
that seeing the flaws has its place in developing any craft. Only after we can see what is wrong can we
learn to do it right. Yet if the roles
were reversed, if the person seeing the project were the one to point out the
flaws, we would find it quite rude. So
why are we kinder to others then we are to ourselves?
According
to C. S. Lewis, the aim of true humility is not to put down or own
talents. Rather, it is, “. . . to be so
free from any bias in [our] own favor that [we] can rejoice in [our] own
talents as frankly and gratefully as in [our] neighbor’s talents. . . .” Wouldn’t
it be great if we could look at our own work with the same eye that we look at
others’. Though I know that it is easier
said than done, I think it is necessary to develop this perspective. As important as it is to see our flaws, I
think it is just as important when developing a craft to see the things that
are done well
It is easy
to get discouraged when all you see is the negative. As the song goes, “You’ve got to accentuate
the positive and eliminate the negative.”
It’s hard to do this if all you can see is the negative. This I think is the key to learning anything
in life. As you continue to do this, you
continually move toward perfection. It
doesn’t matter if you paint, sew, write, or just live, isn’t perfection the
goal?
