I have stumbled on a truth: the art of living well does not mean you have to get it right every time; it's rather learning how to fix your mistakes. If I am at all successful it's largely because I am learning how to fix my mistakes; and my mistakes are many.
When you make a mistake, don't beat yourself up. Work out how to fix it. When kind people look at a guitar I have built they are often complimentary about the craftsmanship, the guitar's beauty, and its full sound and delicate harmonics and overtones. When I look at a guitar I have built I see the mistakes I was able to fix. Truth is, the art of luthiery is the art of fixing mistakes. As in luthiery, so in life.
Bending a thin piece of wood into the beautiful curve of a classical guitar is a tricky process. It requires a "bending iron" (an aluminum pipe with a heating element that gets extremely hot), a little water, even pressure on the wood to get the curve, and a steady nerve. The water on the wood turns instantly to steam, the intense heat and steam stretches the wood fibers. As the wood cools it retains the new shape. Too thick wood, too little pressure, not enough heat, or too little steam and the wood won't move. Too much of any of that and the wood snaps with a sickening crack. The wood breaks; your heart breaks—especially if the wood is an exotic tone wood matching the back of the guitar you have painstakingly planed to two millimeters thickness and shaped to a radius of fifteen feet. "I feel your pain," I hear you say. When that happened, for a few minutes the air turned blue and I was tempted to take an ax and reduce the exotic wood into kindling. Thankfully, I walked away, calmed down, slept on it, dreamt of ways to make amends, and fixed it in the morning. Nothing broken is wasted.
I am learning how to fix my mistakes. Forgiving the mistakes of others is also an art. Know yourself and know others too. My mistakes are plentiful, so are yours. We need to cut each other some slack. Roughly paraphrasing Jesus, "Forgive us our mistakes and go easy on us; as we forgive the mistakes of others, and go easy on them too."
A final musing. Sharp tools are dangerous; blunt tools even more so. The mirror-edged sharpened chisel cuts easily with little pressure. The blunt chisel requires more effort, greater force, and skips off the wood more easily. You're in greater danger from a skipping chisel than a razor sharp one, and even a blunt chisel gives you a nasty cut. Learn from your mistakes! Sharpen your tools! (Work out the metaphor any way you want!)
Today is the first Sunday of Advent and the ensuing four weeks of reflection. I shall reflect on how to fix my mistakes and how to live well.
Advent blessings to all,
+Ab. Andy