Acceptance and Change of Ourselves Will Keep Us Out of Any Troublesome Pickle

Acceptance and change are like pickles and pinwheels. How to accept ourselves and how to change ourselves are the subjects of countless self-help books and course curricula. None are simple. Most lack concrete examples of acceptance and change. How to accept myself as I am and how to change myself into a better person seem to be mutually exclusive.

Acceptance of myself as I am requires that I engage in a process of self- examination and analysis. In ancient Greece, the philosopher Socrates taught that "...the unexamined life is not worth living". The examined life is well worth living is the more positive corollary. Many of us are too terrified to take an honest look at our lives and how we have lived them and how we continue to live them.

Acceptance and self-esteem are the foundation for change and self-improvement. Each of us must become aware of our shortcomings through self-examination in order to move toward effective change and improvement of our lives.

Acceptance of one's self with all faults is the first step toward self-love and self esteem. Change is a continuous lifelong process of self-improvement founded upon self-love. A pickle is used as a poetic metaphor for both acceptance and change. A pinwheel is a metaphor for the revolving cycle of repeated errors and patterns of behavior which spin in the winds of habit if change is not effected.

Pickle

Wanting to be something other

Than an ugly looking duckling;

Brings sadness in no short measure

Acceptance of all is treasure;

ooOOoo

Cucumber became a pickle

Soaked in brine in an oak barrel;

No longer fresh but well preserved

Beside a burger and fries served;

ooOOoo

Becoming something else is fine

Essence remains by grand design;

Nature prevails despite the brine

Change will evolve with hand of time;

ooOOoo

Caught between second and third base

Is said to be baseball’s pickle;

Runner cannot advance or stay

Lest someone throws the ball away;

ooOOoo

Ugly duckling becomes a swan

Nature takes its natural course;

Pickles can’t become cucumbers

Resistance only encumbers;

ooOOoo

Accept the things which can’t be changed

Which are beyond our own control;

Change yourself and change your whole world

Small steps on the path paved with gold.

ooOOoo

sligobay

oooOOOooo

© 2011 Gerry Gilligan,

pseudonym- sligobay

All photos, poems and articles © 2011 Gerry Gilligan

There are so many ways to get yourself into a "pickle" in baseball. Trying to take a long "lead" off a base to steal a base can block a runner from returning to his base. To be tagged out is the outcome to be avoided by the runner but it is the goal of the fielders. The "rundown" is practiced by every little league team and can be perfected. The "pickled runner" has the odds stacked against him. Risky behavior in base running can put a runner in a real pickle.

Alcoholics in recovery use the pickle metaphor to teach acceptance to a new prospect. Once a cucumber ( a social drinker) crosses the threshold from social drinker to problem drinker, he has made the irreversible transition from cucumber to pickle. No matter how much he or she longs for the good old days of drinking merriment of the social drinker, the disease of alcoholism has converted the prospect into a problem drinker. The alcoholic must accept the fact there is no return for the pickle to the status of cucumber. Once the brine has converted the cucumber into a pickle, no amount of wishful thinking by the pickle will restore it to a cucumber. I love this metaphor.

Acceptance of any character defect or shortcoming is the first step to the removal of this unwanted behavior or characteristic. If I learn that I am selfish, greedy and self-centered, I can learn to practice selflessness by performing tasks for the benefit of others. If I learn that I am dishonest, then I must practice rigorous honesty to remove the defect from my character.

The alcoholic does not think his way into "right action". He or she must act their way into "right thinking". These lessons of self-improvement and change need not be confined to the recovering alcoholic. All of us can change our behavior for the better and act our way into "right thinking".