But We Weren't Made to Fail

One of the things that has been bugging me a lot lately is the black and white nature of our society. When did all of the shades of grey disappear? 

I am not a fan. I love black and white photographs, paintings, prints... you name it I like it. But there is a lot to be said for the shades of grey in those black and white works of art. There is a lot of information held in the subtle gradients and tonal effects held in the grey. Maybe it's a design thing but have you ever seen a picture converted from grey scale to line art (black and white only)? It is a spectacular look but you lose a lot. It is the ultimate simplifier. But life is not simple. Life is in fact very complex. So why have we come to live by such black and white standards?

Sorry if I am rambling. I'll move on to my point. I have noticed lately that many of my friends have this standard for all things. If something is not successful than you have failed. Is that not the general standard we live by, that only success is acceptable and all else is failure? I am not okay with that notion. I want to rebel. I want to shout from the roof tops and mountain tops that it is okay to fail. It's better to try and fail than to not try at all. 

I have a friend who just got out of a rough relationship (it was only rough at the end). I got the feeling that she felt the relationship had failed. Is that true? No they didn't end up together, but does that really mean they failed? What is to be said for all of the hurdles they did master, all of the arguments they settled, all of the obstacles they overcame? I see it this way—that relationship absolutely succeeded. No it did not have a storybook ending, but look at how much they learned! Look at how much they grew together as well as individually. All of the mistakes they made are lessons learned, lessons that will better any and all future relationships they come into. 

Isn't it the same thing with school? Even if you fail a test or a class or a paper, you still learned something. If you have to change your major you learned something, even if it was only that you despised the previous major. 

And what about jobs? When did leaving a job or, heaven forbid, getting fired come to mean the world was ending? Did you not learn valuable skills in that job? Did you not have experiences that can be transferred to your next job? Did you not meet people who changed your life? Even if you never got the job, did you not gain interview experience? Do you not have something to add to your check-list of things you tried?

Maybe the subjectivity of my major is getting to me. But I urge you, today, don't look on your "failures" as losses, but look back on all of the excellent things you gained from trying. Whether it be a friendship, relationship, job, test, paper, project or just something simple like trying to lose weight you learned something from trying. You bettered yourself in some way or another. So please, today, see the success even in the failure.

... learn to appreciate the shades of grey. God put them there for a reason.