Foolish relationships
On Oaths, perspective and making mistakes
I’ve been adding fools a bunch lately.
Some have even become certified.
Part of the process of becoming a certified remarkable fool requires new fools to speak aloud The Ancient and Super Wise Oath of The Remarkable Fools Society.
Here’s the oath, read it aloud:
The perfectly imperfect, incomplete and limited fool that is me laughs at myself. I also recognize, celebrate and laugh at the perfectly imperfect, incomplete and limited fool that is you.
Omnes puppibus - everybody poops
The first thing to notice is how clunky this passage is.
Did you struggle? Screw up? Feel a bit foolish?
Hope so. This was designed with awkwardness in mind. It isn’t meant to flow well. Everyone seems to screw up when saying it. Perfect. It brings out imperfection.
The next part? The oath is relational. It’s meant to be spoken to someone else.
This is super important.
And it happened by mistake. I had no intention of creating an oath that had an implied relational aspect. And this has two.
The first, when it comes to foolishness is about accepting the foolishness, the limitedness and the imperfection of ourselves. This is about ‘how’ we relate to ourselves.
Once we’ve got that nailed, we can bring it to the world.
Start with the self, then move outward. Asking for perfection from others, speaks to a severe insecurity in the self.
And if you can’t notice that, you’re a base idiot, not a remarkable fool.
Find an idiot to say the words with.
Hell, if you teach, or lead groups, say the words together.
All of you.
And if just one person laughs, you’ve done enough.
I assumed it was a play on namaste, the greeting and salutation of the Nepalese people: (there are many interpretations, this is my favourite...loosely) that part of me which is of God recognizes that part of you which is of God. We are one.
This is what I saw in your oath/pledge the first time I saw it. The oneness of our idiocy.