Bad Poetry: Empathy for the Self

(Prompted by Poets & Storytellers United.)

Empathy for the self is a slippery slope.

The self's many excuses seem sensible, clear,

and sound. No one could be expected to cope

with such long provoked anger, so prudent a fear!

If the self's sins are sexual, even the Pope

would be certain to err, such temptation so near.

If the wretch who enraged us now swings from a rope,

it was self-defense, pure, and honest, and mere.

If our sins stay within, weakness brought on syncope

of the conscience: who could heed what he did not hear?

If we sin by omission, we mourn and we mope;

we yearn to do better; we'll do that next year.

Oh, we're wicked! let's own it, yet not without hope.

Though we miss every mark, be't remote, be it near,

"Sin and suffer; repent" is a popular trope. 

Everyone understands: we're all fallible here.

There are people who judge themselves more harshly than they do other people, or so we're told. I think more of us find it all too easy to "understand why" we didn't do as well as we think other people should do. 

Perfectly fair judgment is an unattainable ideal. What I want to avoid is the awful "Ooohhh, let's just stop making judgments or trying to improve anything, and just try to feel good about everything" attitude that leads to everyone having more to feel bad about. 

"It's okay if I eat too much, don't exercise, and gain a little weight every year" eventually leads to disabling obesity. "It's okay if I use drugs to distract myself from my reality problems" eventually leads to insanity. "It's okay if I don't work today" eventually bankrupts the business. It's better to focus on the ideal and try to bring ourselves closer to the ideal than it is to try to feel good about our deviation from the ideal.

Self-discipline is a way of loving the self, of seeking and usually getting the best for the self. I think it's actually easier to get the job done than it is to feel good about procrastinating, easier to stay sober than to feel good about drinking, easier to share than to feel good about avarice. It's easier to put up a few extra blog posts to make up for having failed to post them last week than it is to tell myself I feel good about telling people I'll post something every morning and not doing that