This is a picture of a tomato from my vegetable garden. After I picked a good handful of tomatoes, this little one stood out distinctly because of its ‘imperfect’ shape. While all its peers had the regular ovalish shape, this one was different. It seemed to have a tiny head on top of his oval body. Very different from the remaining tomatoes in the basket. Had this tomato been a human, it may have succumbed to the myriads of insecurities that we humans generally go through. “I look different from the other tomatoes, something is wrong with me, I do not deserve to be with the others here, why was I born with this extra bulge?, why me? my skin looks paler than the others ” and so and so forth…
How many of us go through life thinking we are imperfect because we have crafted our own definition of “perfection” and categorized people into the imperfect and perfect bucket? And how many of these definitions of perfection are often appearance based? She is tall and has a pretty face and hence she is perfect!I am short and not perfect. Or he laughs weird, I cannot be seen with him. Or he dresses lousy, not a perfect guy. Or he is fat, not perfect by any means. Our minds constantly chatter with these kind of judgmental self-limiting thoughts. If we do not train our minds to stop or ignore the chatter, we fall prey to this voice in our head and complicate our lives.
So what is the BIG TRUTH?
The Big Truth is that the little imperfect tomato has the same flavor to add to any dish as the other tomatoes. I diced it up and ate in a salad and it was tasty and flavorful as any tomato can be. Similarly, ALL of us have the same value to add to this world irrespective of our outward appearances.
It is easy to accept the tomato just the way it is and use it to add flavor to the dish than accept people for who they are. Just like the tomato, each of us have our own purposes to fulfill and our own lives to live. It is easy to get side stepped into thinking about our different appearances and hence forget that each of us have our own purpose to fulfill and the same kind of value to add to the world. The body is only a protective shell for the most beautiful part of us, the soul/the spirit/the mind/the inner being. We need to train ourselves to look past the outer costume that all of us wear and connect with the true inner being of another, recognize another person’s potential and value that they bring to the world.
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