This is the best of all possible worlds?
How can we be living in the best of all possible worlds when all I have to do is look around at all of the wars, famine, violence, child abuse, earth abuse. . . .the list could literally go on for days. So I've never been able to get on board with this philosophical theory, because it's very clear to me that this world is anything but the best of all possible worlds.
About ten years ago I received a book as a gift (The Four Agreements). I read the book when I first received it, thought it was a wonderful idea, but then it sat on my shelves collecting dust ever since. Then several weeks ago the trauma counselor mentioned the book in passing, and when she couldn't recall all four agreements I pulled the book off of the dusty shelf to find the name of the missing agreement. And after I had left a message on her voicemail with the agreement's name, I nearly tossed the book into the thrift store box collecting the sorted and purged pieces of my life, but something nudged me to reread the book instead.
And there it was: Do your best.
The fourth agreement is simply to "Do your best" in all things. Good enough advise, but in the book the author talks about how our best changes from day to day, and sometimes even from minute to minute because our best isn't going to be the same when we're exhausted or sick as when we're healthy and rested. Very profound. Well, profound for me, because this truth (at this point in my journey) is helping me to let go of the need to continually beat myself up for having done less than what I think I "should" have done either here in the present, but mostly about choices that were made in the past.
I contain multitudes.
I have always loved this quote from Walt Whitman, as I contain multitudes, too. I'm not a single entity, as there are all kinds of different "parts" to me (e.g., the concept of inner child , internalized parent, or inner critic are but a few examples of parts). The author also talks about how these different parts actually access and use a specific and unique part of the brain, which is absolutely fascinating to consider.
So, what I experience as my best on any given day is more the sum collection of the best of all of the different parts of me and how well they are able to work together (and clearly some parts are more limited than others. . . .lol). But I'm really doing the absolute best that is possible for me, given all of the limitations that exist within my life, whether that limitation is based on my genetic code, behavioral choices, cognitive belief structure, or damage to the brain from the PTSD. I'm doing the best that I can possibly do.
I live in the best of all possible worlds that exist within my self.
It's the all that catches my eye. Since I contain multitudes, then I also contain a multitude of worlds, because each part has its own specific and unique possible world (if it could function separately from all other parts of me, which isn't possible, of course, but this is the concept). Which means, then, that what I call "me" is actually a collection of all of these possible worlds that are contained within my self. And this is more than just an exercise in philosophy for me, because this truth changes the way that I comprehend the world that I co-create with every other part of God's creations.
Because, if I'm doing the best that I possibly can, then so is everyone else.
This truth is not very easy for me to accept, as I can be just as harsh in my judgment of other people's best as I am with my own. But at the end of the day, what this means is nothing more than this crazy mixed up world that we all co-create together (as the sum collection of each and everyone's best) really is the best of all possible worlds. Not because everyone is making the best choice for the world in each and every choice, because quite honestly we're all running around with our own ideas of what this "best" is supposed to look like. But mostly because everyone is just doing the best that is possible given each person's specific and unique limitations.
So we live in the best of all possible worlds, as the sum collection of everyone's individual best.
And while I still don't understand why some people's "best" includes not-so-random acts of violence against other people, I do have more compassion for the lot of the human race, and particularly for myself because I am harder on myself than anyone else will ever be. But that is changing. . . .slowly. . . .because I am beginning to see that I really am doing the absolute best that I can do.
Perhaps if I can remind myself of this truth often enough, I might actually start to believe it. . . lol.