My humanity is always a work in progress

It was one of those days. Had a phone conversation and heard words pop out of my mouth, words that I’d ordinarily sensor. “I said WHAT?!”

I did. Say those words. Somehow having breached my “do you really want to say this” sentry. (Was she asleep? In a chocolate-induced stupor?) Can I fall back on my oft-used excuse, “Well, I’m just human?” This being human stuff is an omnibus permission slip, to be, well, imperfectly human? Treating another person as unfit for consideration, without worth, or an object of derision?

Yep. ‘Tis sadly true that contempt seems to be falling like heavy rain these days. Storms spread, widely, across the whole of our belief spectrum. A seriously contagious sucker. Like the flu. That ‘ol contempt word spreads from one person to the next and to the next, based on just one, measly, exposure to someone else’s expressed contempt. Holy cow! (And, geez, no one seems to be working on a vaccine.)

My exposure to contempt during an ordinary day? Just one exposure can become an unwanted invitation for my deeply hidden devil to come on out and play. Yep, come out and make hay with contempt toward others. Not a side of me I’d like highlighted in an eventual obituary. “Jan was known for being contemptuous.” Um, I don’t think so…

Ok, ok, I’ve had it with this contempt stuff. Contempt has held center stage long enough in my life. There’s a new prime player, just waiting to enter from stage left. And, oh wow, it’s another c-word. Choice.

I can choose, instance by instance, not to be a spreader of the contempt virus. Will there be inborn pushback? Are you kidding? You better believe it. My humanity is always a work in progress. Always.

But….

“Even the worst decisions we make don’t necessarily remove us from the circle of humanity.”

~Wes Moore, First Black Governor in Maryland’s 246-year history.

So there. Human to the core and always, always, a work in progress.