All the World's a Stage

"Flying by the seat of my pants without a script." JustJean

Goals are useful. You need to know where you are going and how you're going to get there. But a happy life also has a free-flowing aspect to it, and there are times when you just have to figure things out as you go along. Some folks hold on tightly to the script, referring to it constantly. Then when something goes awry, they become angry and indignant, stomping around the stage of life, pointing to the script and yelling, "No! It's not supposed to happen this way!"

We can have some very definite roles for people, too. Those we love and those we meet become characters in our script and we expect them to behave in certain ways. We get mad at them for not saying their lines the way they were written. "You've changed!" we tell them. We wave the script around and say, "I don't even know who you are anymore." Well, if you would have looked up from your script from time to time, you would know who they are.

Online dating services promise to set you up with someone who could be your ideal mate. It's good to know what you want in a partner or spouse, and for sure you need to have some non-negotiable items on the list. But it is possible to become so invested in it that if they meet most of the criteria, you blind yourself to their other traits. You could at the worst miss some red flags and at best you sell the other person short, because really do you love them or do you simply love your illusion?

It takes real courage to put down the script, live life as it comes and take folks for who they are.

Susan