Forests of Mediocrity

Enough.

This word on its own seems to say that there is more than necessary. It can also mean not lacking. I guess those two meanings are not the same, but they belong to the same word.

It’s cold today. I don’t know if I’m cold or not, but the wind is blowing and the clouds are encroaching, and I’m buried under many blankets, so I suppose I am at least a bit cold. Cold can come from outside, but cold can also be from within. Today, I think I’m warm enough.

I wonder what it’s like to be a tree. Every day, whether there is much sun and warmth or much cold and wet, a tree can’t go anywhere. Do trees feel cold? I wouldn’t mind being like that; unable to feel cold. But if a tree couldn’t feel cold, can it feel the pleasantness of a trickle of sunshine? A drop of water? A touch of wind? Even if I could find a way to never feel cold again, I wouldn’t be able to live without the feel of the wind. The wind can hurt sometimes, but I know there will always be days ahead when the wind is not so cruel. Maybe I can survive this cold and wet and stormy knowing that eventually springtime will come, and I will once again have a day where I can simply lay in the wet grass and listen to the sun.

What does the sun even sound like, you ask? Literally, it’s sort of like an explosion going on forever somewhere off in space, but I’ve never been close enough to hear that aspect of it. By the time it gets here, that sound the sun makes is lost. There isn’t really a way I can describe how the sun sounds, but it’s sort of like a guitar playing a rapid sequence of chords. That’s why indoor concerts at night seem so out of place; guitars and sunshine resonate better than florescent lights and cement walls.

But is it enough? If I could only ever hear guitar at night indoors, would it be enough? Of course not; guitars are no substitute for sunshine.

Maybe enough is just an excuse for mediocrity. Let us pause and consider how many great things were allowed to remain unfinished because they were, “good enough” as they were.

(has a minute passed yet? No? Seriously, stop reading and think about how many things could have been better if we hadn’t stopped at “good enough”)

But somehow at the end of a long day when we’ve tried so hard to be perfect, but we can’t make it, good enough is a reassuring thought. Good enough isn’t an excuse to not try, but rather a fall back that says perfection isn’t always necessary. It is okay to not be perfect. It isn’t okay to not try to be better.

Sometimes life is crazy and stressful and cold! Sometimes we’ve had enough! That’s okay too. Quitting isn’t always failing. Not if you’re giving up something you can’t finish for something much better. You aren’t a tree, beloved; you can feel the cold.