Lara C. Andreykovich LCA11@pitt.edu
Early last week, while celebrating the onset of the new year at a local establishment, I overheard some of the patrons conversing about the subject of Franco Harris’ passing, as well as his immaculate reception. It got me thinking first about receiving and passing as opposing actions and then about the nature of the word immaculate – pristine, pure, spotless, perfect, untouched. Yet as much as we strive towards perfection, the reality that no thing and no person can be perfect stands. In fact, there are sportscasters, fans, and critics who continue to speculate that not even Franco Harris’s catch was flawless! Perhaps then we should settle for self-improvement rather than perfection as both a redeeming and realistic personal goal.
After chiming in to the group conversation, I contemplated the following: if perfection is unattainable, and self-improvement is achievable, why do we continue to have unrealistic expectations of others, discounting the possibility of others’ attempts to improve themselves? Further, if we wish for people to live up to our expectations, is it not a reasonable undertaking to support their improvement? Hence, the irony! By exercising ignorance (not taking the time to understand another person), impatience (not exerting the energy required to actually help a person learn), and narrow-mindedness (the selfish action of inaction that involves not caring about things beyond your personal scope of knowledge) with others, we have abandoned our own learning and self-improvement process. How can we move towards self-improvement when we criticize others’ lack of improvement rather than helping them?
To address the posited questions – setting lofty expectations of others while neglecting in themselves the same things they expect in others - here’s what I suggest: I propose we utilize whichever universally-bestowed observation capabilities we have in order to sense others. In other words, we work at cultivating our senses to reach higher levels of awareness, patience, and open-mindedness.
The late Mahatma Ghandi reminded humankind to “See the good in people and help them”, that “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”, that “A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes”, and to “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”. Though all of the mentioned quotes pertain to the current topic, I am modifiying the last quotation to read Be the change you wish to see in others. This is what being a sensible (and sensitive) human being entails – when you embody being the change you wish to see in others, and it has very little if nothing to do with dogmatic political and religious views.
Revisiting Mahatma Ghandi’s magnificent and gentle reminders about living life while being mindful of its brevity can be understood as receiving (life) with an awareness of it passing (death). For me, Franco Harris’ near immaculate reception, and how he chose to live life in general symbolizes and exemplifies the receiving and passing of life. Ultimately, there is a reason why Harris was a role model for so many of us. He clearly worked at improving himself through helping others.