We are all supposed to learn from our mistakes. When I was very much younger, I used to think: ‘yes, we learn from our mistakes, but others have to make their own mistakes and learn for themselves.’ However, as time passed by, I would warn and tell my children of some of my mistakes and although I would concede that they would still make their own, I suggested that they should learn from mine and try to not repeat them.
There is, however, a far more interesting perspective to this.
Today I received my daily inspirational email from “Growing each day” in it Rabbi Abraham J Twerski writes:
A surgeon once encountered difficult complications during an operation and asked his assistant to see if there was anyone in the surgical suite who could help. The assistant replied that the only one who was there was the chief of the surgical staff. "There is no point in calling him," the operating surgeon said. "He would not know what to do. He never got himself into a predicament like this."
As far as people's own functioning is concerned, it might be better not to have made mistakes. Still, such perfection makes them relatively useless as sources of help to others who have made mistakes, because they have no experience on which to draw to know how to best help them correct their mistakes.
He then concludes:
That someone perfect in righteousness may not be able to identify and empathize with average people who need help in correcting their errors. If a helper is required in this field, someone who has already made mistakes and is repentant and aware of them is certainly the perfect helper.
It would therefore be good to reflect on how mistakes were dealt with and then share the experience with others who may benefit from the information.
There is, however, a far more interesting perspective to this.
Today I received my daily inspirational email from “Growing each day” in it Rabbi Abraham J Twerski writes:
A surgeon once encountered difficult complications during an operation and asked his assistant to see if there was anyone in the surgical suite who could help. The assistant replied that the only one who was there was the chief of the surgical staff. "There is no point in calling him," the operating surgeon said. "He would not know what to do. He never got himself into a predicament like this."
As far as people's own functioning is concerned, it might be better not to have made mistakes. Still, such perfection makes them relatively useless as sources of help to others who have made mistakes, because they have no experience on which to draw to know how to best help them correct their mistakes.
He then concludes:
That someone perfect in righteousness may not be able to identify and empathize with average people who need help in correcting their errors. If a helper is required in this field, someone who has already made mistakes and is repentant and aware of them is certainly the perfect helper.
It would therefore be good to reflect on how mistakes were dealt with and then share the experience with others who may benefit from the information.
Well the bottom line really is that some good can come from almost anything if you put your mind to it and apply it in the correct way and far from perfect seems a good place to be!!
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