Imperial war museum

I took my son to the Imperial war museum in London on Sunday. It was quite an emotional afternoon. My son, who is 4, just loved the tanks and huge planes hanging from the roof but for me, I found it quite disturbing. There was a replica of the atom bomb from the 2nd World war, there was a whole exhibition on childhood and war -with gravestones of babies, which made  me  sob.

The 3rd floor is dedicated to the Holocaust. This exhibition is devastating (and necessary)  - to always remind us what can happen when we allow our minds to be poisoned by hatred and fear, of what happens when we are war with ourselves - and the dark side wins.

I believe that we all have a dark side - fear/anger/pain that has nowhere to go but to attack and destroy. To build a Big Peace for ourselves - how can we acknowlege this dark side and bring it into the light? Hitler was striving to create the perfect 'arien' race - where anything other than what he saw as 'perfect' had be destroyed. A world of peace is one of diversity, acceptance of all humanity versus the perfect few.

After my visit, I felt overwhelmed with 'what can little me do against such dark forces?' I came to the conclusion that right now, I can start with working on myself - on my own inner wars, my own dark side - stop denying my anger, grief, sadness, bitchiness et al. And working on transforming that darker energy into something more positive or at least, be more open so I can begin to heal whatever is rattling my cage.

And certainly stop striving to be perfect. But rather celebrate my imperfections and all that makes me human.

Let's start a new campaign - or create a new 'week' -  how does 'celebrate your imperfections' week?
Post your ideas in the comments books. What is imperfect about you and how does that make you into a better person?

Comments

[Ben]

hmmm, it's kinda scary to admit that I'm not actually perfect in the eyes of others. After all, I've spent the equivalent of a small African country's GNP 'working on myself'!

I have the feeling that this is going to 'haunt' me until I really admit something 'big'. In the meantime:

-I'm rubbish with my family, especially my parents who are getting on a bit
-I'm an information junkie. I just don't implement what I know all that often

Conveniently, I have to go now and do some work...it's a good job because my palms are sweaty and my heart is racing - more coffee I think!

Ben

[Shirley]

"Stop striving to be perfect"... Something that's definitely on my daily list of things to do! I keep a little note by desk to help, which says, "You don't have to get it perfect, just get it going!"

I feel inspired after reading this post Suzy - I look forward to the next one!

Shirley