Mindful June 2017

point of view
Err on the Side of Human
Barry Boyce
Editor-in-Chief
barry@mindful.org
Our must-read story this issue:
In “The Mind Set Free,” Hugh
Delehanty learns how to let his
creativity run wild. On page 54.
Read a short report on the scientific
research behind the value of making
mistakes at mindful.org/mistakes
At this year’s Academy Awards,
the night’s big award, best picture, was
largely a contest between two movies:
La La Land, a bubbly, lighter-than-air
musical depicting beautiful people
traipsing through the hills, valleys,
boulevards, and freeways of LA; and
Moonlight, a gritty coming-of-age story
about a young African American marginalized
not only through racial discrimination
but because he is poor, gay,
and being raised by a mother addicted
to drugs. Despite its grave theme,
Moonlight uplifts; it’s about resilience
and love in the face of untold odds.
In the inevitable social media wars,
La La Land was denigrated for even
being considered in the same league
as a movie of the depth of Moonlight.
So, when La La Land won the night’s
final Oscar, many Moonlight fans
turned off their TVs. When the La
La Land acceptance speeches were
halted to announce that the true winner
was Moonlight, it shocked everyone
involved. A truly human moment
emerged when the teams from both
movies expressed their respect and
admiration for their counterparts.
The pettiness stirred up in the social
media universe was not in evidence
onstage. Though they made very
different movies, their behavior suggested
a mutual appreciation for the
artistry involved in depicting the light
and comic and the heavy and tragic.
That’s what made it striking: Something
delightful and heartwarming
emerged from a mistake. Having
been blown out of proportion, things
returned to appropriate size: Hey,
we’re just human beings here doing
our thing, and whether we win or lose
is not the end of the world. Aren’t mistakes
wonderful that way?
Yet we so often shrink from mistakes.
Many of our organizations
make it a habit of punishing mistakes
harshly, meting out shame that makes
people feel small. That’s such a foolish
strategy, though, since mistakes are
essential for life. Without genetic
“mistakes”—mutations—the variability
that life needs to continue into
future generations would not emerge.
Things would be too static.
We need random acts of failure to
move forward. In our human interactions,
flubs keep us real. Our natural
vulnerability, which we so often hide,
emerges, promoting connection with
others. Errors can inspire the truly
lovely emotion of forgiveness. How
pleasant is the sound of “That’s OK”?
Mistakes are also the key to learning.
As psychologist Kelly McGonigal
points out, “…the process of
‘failing’—when you’re willing to pay
attention—is often what leads to the
greatest successes,” and early work
by Jon Kabat-Zinn demonstrated that
practicing mindfulness could trigger a
brain shift that decreased the overreaction
to things not going as planned.
This responding-not-reacting quality
is the essence of becoming resilient.
The practice of meditation is
founded on making mistakes. Our
attention will wander, which gives us
the delightful opportunity to return
home—with a smile. And above all,
mistakes happen with ease. We don’t
have to try to mess things up. A mess
awaits us just around the corner. ●
VOLUME FIVE, NUMBER 2, Mindful (ISSN 2169-5733, USPS 010-500) is published bimonthly for $29.95 per year USA, $39.95 Canada &
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PHOTOGRAPH BY MARVIN MOORE
8 mindful June 2017