Oops was the first word that came to my mind when I saw the
picture. Oops was an appropriate word to
describe the scene of a little girl in her pajamas sitting on the floor that
was strewn with Cheerios. In her left
hand was a relatively large glass that obviously used to be the container for
the now-dispersed Cheerios. What else
can you say other than “oops” when all your Cheerios jump out of your glass and
go a million directions on the floor?
Sadly the way our culture is evolving, it won’t be too long
before “oops” will be replaced with a variety of swear words! Oops is such a quaint, cute word. I don’t know whether it is universal, but I
hope it is. I hope little Chinese kids
and African kids say “oops” when their Cheerios spill. It is so clear, so graphic. Oops announces unambiguously that, “I just
made a mess!” I have said it many times.
The little girl in the pajamas was looking up at the camera
as if she were saying, “Oops, it’s not my fault.” In the end it might matter whether it was her
fault. Perhaps it really was
accidental. It could have been
intentional---she really meant to throw all the Cheerios on the floor. But in either case, there was a mess. Accidents and intentionality both cause
messes. The mess is the fact. Accidents and intentionality only explain how
we got the mess.
The image of the little girl sitting on the floor amidst her
mess became an analogy for the way life goes for all of us humans. We are no longer little girls and boys sitting
on the floor in the midst of our mess.
But as adults, we nevertheless are wandering through life and sometimes
find ourselves in a mess. Sometimes we
caused our own mess. And sometimes the
mess in which we find ourselves is accidental---but that does not matter; it is
a mess anyway.
I began to think about spiritual messes. We usually don’t call them spiritual
messes. But that does not matter too
much what we call them. Like all messes,
they are fact. In the old days a
spiritual mess was called a sin. Most of
the people I know don’t really like the language of sin, so they don’t use the
word. But that can be an illusion. Just because I don’t like and don’t use sin
language does not mean there is no sin.
Sin is like a mess. Call it what
you want; it is a fact. A mess is a mess
by any word you want to use.
Once we accept the mess as a fact, the more important
question is what to do with the mess? I
am fairly sure the Cheerios surrounding the little girl on the floor eventually
were swept up and thrown away. Since she
is still probably too little to do it herself, I am sure someone else came to
the rescue. Someone else cleaned up her
mess. Even if she were at fault, I hope
there was no punishment.
Of course, there are times we need to be held accountable
for the messes we intentionally make.
Accidental messes are fault-free.
I can be sorry for a mess I might accidentally make, but I should not be
held responsible. Again, I am finally
more interested in how to resolve the mess.
Even if our mess is appropriately called sin, there
fortunately are some good ways to clean up the mess. If I caused the mess, a classic resolution is
to apologize. If I make a mess, the
least I can do is to be sorry for making the mess. Even if the mess I make is accidental, I can
still be sorry. And if I intentionally
caused the mess, then I should acknowledge my fault, be sorry and create some
form of restoration, if that is possible.
Again, I would note that most major spiritual traditions
have some effective ways of teaching us how to deal with the messes we make in
our lives. I need not rehearse those in
any detail. What I would like to do is
to underscore how important it is finally that our messes be cleaned up.
Messes that are not addressed are poisons to the human
system and to the relationships between humans.
Oops is not a good word. It
indicates something has gone wrong or awry.
Oops is a call to attention.
Ignoring oops is a bad way to go.
Ignorance and ignoring are sure ways to allow the poison to begin doing
its dastardly work. Finally the Cheerios
need to be cleaned up and thrown into the trash.
The way I like to put it spiritually is to say there is a
place for trash and it is not in our human hearts! The spiritual life goes best when it is clean
and clear of messes. I am not naïve;
messes will come and messes will be made.
But when there is a mess, give it attention and get it into the trash,
so that the good life can go forward.
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