Friday, August 25, 2017

What is 100%?

Help me with this... (because I have learned to ask for help)
What is 100%?
When it comes to giving 100% or being at 100% or doing it 100%, is that just a saying?
Does it exist?

I have written before about not being able to give 100% as a teacher once I attempted to be a 100% parent. Now, though, I wonder what this 100% business is and if it even exists.

In my children's lives, I never expect 100% on tests or first place in an event.
I do root for at least a 90% in their happiness.
Because can you be 100% happy?
And is it that 100% the ultimate?
The outlying goal?
A beacon in the long swim of it all?
Is it something of value that we need to even think about?

I was talking to a wonderful friend about being at 100% a while ago, and it has floated around and around in my mind needing a complete think through.

To be honest, we weren't even talking about 100%, probably, but about something maybe just as out of reach for a human- we were talking about being as good as "before".
As I listened to her concerns, I began to think inside of myself about whatever "before" could be for me. (And you could think about what "before" may be for you, as she knew what it was for her...)

My before is gone.
It left with entering my 40s.
It left with a prescription.
It left with a flux of chemicals and juices and what have you in the human body.

Then I thought...wait...do I want my before back?
Because even though it came with tighter thighs, it did not come with the deeper breaths I take now.
Before came with the ability to see a menu in any light and at any distance from my face, and it didn't come with the clarity I like to think I have now.
It came with lightning quick reflexes and reactions, and it didn't come with walking away and steeping in thoughts until ready.

Stepping away from the idea of 100%, I ask the question: What is good enough? And what could be the answer since we all have to answer that individually and for ourselves?

In China, I heard at different times from English speaking Chinese, "Is good enough". It made me smile remembering a Buddhist Monk say it once in a talk. It was the theme of his talk about letting go of assumed perfection. It has since become a refrain of my family. As I took in the different cities in China, the words took on a deeper meaning to me.
There is, where I am, an American tendency for the perfect home, the perfect body, the perfect lifestyle. What that looked like, in the China I saw, was completely different. The outside of a home might have looked run down, but the inside was polished wood and meaningful furniture and art. Restaurants might have been too hot and the plates and bowls mismatched, but the food was expertly cooked and delicious.

So what mattered more?
The outside or the inside?
The look or the feel?

I wonder if giving our best selves, almost all the time, can be agreed upon.
And seeing as I just smartened up the outside of my house, I wonder if my inside of the house can remain a bit disheveled as long as it is still a comfy place to enter.

I would like to think that entering a classroom, open to learning and open to the struggle of learning, might be the enough for both student and teacher.
Might be the better?
Maybe it is the honesty of saying, "I am going to get in here, have at it, and see what comes out from the passion to try this thing."
Maybe that can be translated into some value we can all embrace.
We don't have to be like before.
We have to be like now, and we have to be all in with the now and the who we are at this point in our lives.

And, we have to give everyone a break.


4 comments:

  1. Maybe for the teacher and the student is..."can you do better?". The 100% thing probably doesn't matter if that's the case.

    Giving everyone a break is warranted in most cases. The exception being DJT. He doesn't ever get a break. Never. Ever.

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