Spin Cycle: Mistakes

I think I am about to take the Spin Cycle to a nuclear level. I'm pretty sure this isn't what Sprite's Keeper had in mind when she came up with this topic, but this is what my brain popped out. So, here we go...

I was at lunch, standing at the counter, and peeling my hard-boiled egg when I started to think about mistakes. This is an odd-duck time to think about mistakes, I know, but my egg was peeling funky, you see, and it made perfect sense. On most occasions, I am an expert egg-peeler. I can very nearly peel off the entire shell with no pock-marks on the flesh of the egg and an entire shell nearly intact. I am a rock-star egg-peeler, you guys. Today, however, the egg did not want to cooperate, and I very nearly chucked it and started over. This was when I started to think about mistakes; and more accurately, I started to think about how I react to mistakes.

I do not like them. Not one bit, no way, no how. I don't like it when other people make mistakes, and I hatehateHATE it when I make mistakes. When other people make mistakes, I feel let down (which you may totally read: they didn't do it my way). When I make mistakes, I suddenly become terrified, bunny-in-your-headlights fish. Or, I get angry (hence the near-egg-chucking...)

For example...

One night, while we were still living in the trailer (how country is that?), Hub was making chili for supper. Somehow...oh, I remember...we had already eaten, and I was going to put the remainder of the chili into a Tupperware container for leftovers. I got all of the chili into the container when WHAMO! Chili on da flo.

My first reaction was to get scared that Hub would be mad at me. Then, I started to cry. Who cries over spilled chili, really?

Ok, I know you think I'm getting a little off track, but all of this flashed in my brain while I was peeling that egg. I started to wonder why we make such a big deal out of mistakes. True, some mistakes are bigger than others (say, sleeping with the boss' wife versus forgetting to put a quarter in the meter); but as a society, we PUNISH mistakes rather than TEACH from mistakes. Isn't mistake-making part of learning? Don't we try to lead our children (the good parents anwyays) into better decisions when they make a mistake? Why, then, do we punish each other as adults?

(I told you I was going nuclear...my brain almost exploded when I started to think about this...)

SO THEN I started thinking, "Well, be the change you want in your life." AND THAT made me think about this: I'm a complainer. However, I'm a particular complainer whereas some folks are mass-media complainers. I particularly complain about people who complain about stupid things. I began wondering how I could "be the change" about mistakes. How that related to being a complainer, I'm not quite sure, but it does. So there.

I can hear frog..."OMG fish. Get on with it."

I think I'm going to start making more mistakes on purpose so I can learn to:
A) Not be afraid of them.
B) Not get angry.
C) Not complain when others make mistakes (and / or complain about the mistakes of others others)

Yeah. Quit reading this entirely-too-long ramble, and go visit Sprite's Keeper.
-points to blogroll-