Life is no argument. The conditions of life might include error.
—Friedrich Nietzsche—
We’ve all known people to whom it was terribly important that we always be right. Perhaps some of us are those people,
at least part of the time. Life under these conditions is an unrelenting struggle against sloppy thinking, dirt, carelessness, and the general slipshod stupidity of the rest of the world.
When we think this way, it is well to wonder how it is that we are right, while everyone else is wrong. We may find that our behavior is based not on rational thinking but on fear—the fear that if we relinquish control even for a moment, we’ll fall into chaos.
How sad to be held hostage by such fears! The chaos that we imagine at these times is no more real than the order we struggle to impose. What we need is self-acceptance—the humble but joyous recognition that we are human, just like everyone else, and that human beings might include error in their lives.
Perfection is an ideal, not a real phenomenon. Only by accepting my imperfections can I become fully human.