“Give us permission, through you, to have a flaw, because flaws are the norm. When you hide your flaws, you teach us to do that. I love to say that we’re just waiting for one teacher, just one, to give us permission to be who we are now, so that we can all come to know that that’s what is normal for us. You appear as this now. That’s such a gift to give . The pain is in withholding it. Who else is going to give us permission to be free, if not you? Do it for you own sake, and we’ll follow. We’re a reflection of your thinking, and when you free yourself, we all get free.” -Byron Katie
As I ponder the above statement I realize that anything can be considered a flaw: physical characteristics, a person’s behavior, natural disasters, etc. People and cultures decide individually what is a flaw to them and what is perfection, some of these flaws and perfections match among the people/cultures while others do not. Let’s say a natural disaster hits, injurs and maybe even kills innocent people, some people would look at the disaster not even realizing that it could hurt someone and think “how exciting, what a miraculous thing that has happened…I feel so alive!” While others might think, “how horrible, so many lives lost, so much damage, why did it have to happen!” Another example is a person freely speaking their mind, one person hearing might think “how rude! How dare she say such blunt things aloud! Doesn’t she know what she said is hurtful?” While someone else hearing the same woman might think, “I really admire her honesty! What freedom of expression she has! I want that kind of freedom!” And the most ovious example is physical features; I don’t mean to be offensive but I want to use the example of men’s preferance for a woman’s bust size. We’ve all heard that men consider a small bust a flaw, right? Well, some men do and on the other hand some men love a small bust. And visa verse, some men love a large bust while some would prefer a small bust. It’s all objective.
Can you imagine a woman owning her “flaws” totally and completely? Just loving her whole self and appearance. I can just imagine the kind of impact that would have…think of her children, husband, friends and family, the kind of example they would have and how much more suseputible they will be to follow her footsteps of total and complete self love. I can’t pretend I’m to that point myself…yet I do have my moments. Yes, they are just moments, beautiful moments however fleeting. I saw a movie on cable that was a perfect example of a person giving others permission to be free for themselves…although it is a silly example and I invite you to ignore the stupidity of the situation and see the freedom and acceptance of something that would otherwise be really ackward and looked down on. The movie was John Tucker Must Die and in the scene the basketball players and cheerleaders are at an away-game in an hotel. John’s so-called girlfriend was trying to humiliate him and told him that if he wore a women’s thong she would give him some action…he was trying to sneak into her room (per her fake request) anyway the whole school ends of seeing him in a women’s thong. Most people would be embarrised and ashamed about the “flaw” of being caught in such attire and what that might mean, (remember nothing is wrong with being embarrised and ashamed), however in this example the next week John shows up to basketball practive with a thong clearly under his shorts at first everyone is disquested and then he tells them how much less-restricting and comfortable they are…soon all the ball players are wearing them!!! I know thats a silly example and still a good one to demonstrate how ”one teacher” can be freeing to all who are wanting freedom and in this example freedom of not caring if you look like a sissy when your just a guy who likes comfort.
Picture your own worst-scenario case where one of your “flaws” is exposed and what it would be like if someone with the same “flaw” or perhaps something would think is worse andthey caused you freedom by exposing there own flaw, what would that be like? Imagine if that person who caused the freedom was YOU! What would that be like?
