MISTAKES WERE MADE . . .

Back in the day of teaching composition to college freshmen, I was obliged to acquaint the students with certain rules that would keep them from falling a letter grade or two or three below what their ideas merited. One of those rules was "Passive voice should not be used."

I loved that way of expressing it--using the very mistake that students should avoid.

Why not just say, "Avoid passive voice"?

Ah, well, another example of Nobody's Perfect, and Mistakes Will Be Made.

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Another rule--this time from my family's collective wisdom--was "Experience is the best teacher."

That seemed to be a nice corollary to "Mistakes will be made." The obvious connection is that we benefit from the experience (of making a mistake) by learning from the mistake.

However! One of my favorite professors said, "People don't learn from their mistakes." He was serious. But, was he correct in his thinking? Sad to say, my experience of teaching freshman composition showed he was indeed on the right track. Very few students learned from their mistakes by changing their writing habits. They wrote because that was the assignment; they did the least they could do for a passing grade (C-, which was the lowest acceptable grade to pass the course); and they avoided their prior transgressions, often while committing new ones.

I hasten to add that I have, from time to time, learned something from my mistakes. The stumbling block is to remember what the prior mistake was, how it occurred, and what I can do to avoid that particular pitfall this time. (The operative word here is remember.)

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Enough ancient history.

Let's get back to Mistakes, Making Of..

From what I can glean in reading and listening, many people seem to think that life is about damage control. After a mistake is made, the thinking goes like this:

   - What can we do now?
   - How can we cover this up?
   - Who can we blame?
   - How can this be turned to our advantage?

Does anybody ever ask: What can we learn?

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I'm inclined to think there are very few true "mistakes" in life. What looks like a wrong turn in thinking or in the execution of an idea may be a "happy accident."

Consider composers, painters, poets, novelists; scientists; business people; quilters, photographers . . . . (You can come up with your own list; mine would take up the space of two or three of these posts.)

As far back as you can go, there was some practitioner of an art or craft, some scientist or entrepreneur, who is remembered for her/his "new" way of doing things.

The hide-bound traditionalist says, these are mistakes. Pure and simple. Not the way we do things, old chap.

The unconventional thinker says, the new ways of doing things could be called "happy accidents," or even "inspired accidents." Did the new practice come out of making a mistake that could be seen by the mistake-maker as simply another way of looking at a problem? (Radical thought there.)

Perhaps the mistake-maker, so-called, had a moment of insight into the everyday, the ordinary, that made it at once new, extraordinary.

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Dante's Inferno detailed "nine concentric circles of torment," otherwise known as Hell. I suspect one of those levels includes people who like to point out other people's mistakes and who, themselves, are convinced they never make mistakes. Perhaps in the same level we can include all the people who try to cover up what has happened or to blame others for one's own sins. (The question is: Can anyone escape this punishment?)

I'd like to close with another cliche--also learned from my extended family's collective wisdom: "Live and let live." 

Yes, mistakes will be made . . . by me, by you, by people we (erroneously) think are perfect.

Do we need to point them out? Only if they impact the life and liberty of someone who can't speak up about it.

Do we actually need to do anything at all about other people's mistakes? Maybe observe and then try to avoid that particular misstep. Not dwell on what happened to someone else. And if we're the one who got the brunt of the mistake, try to forgive.

If it's my own mistake, try to forgive myself and move on. Learn something from what I did wrong. And seek forgiveness if I've wronged another person.

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Maybe I should've warned you that this was going to be a difficult topic. If my thinking was wrong, please forgive me. (Thank you.)

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SYNONYMS FOR MISTAKES:

     BLOOPERS - ERRORS - FLUBS - GAFFES - OUTTAKES - GOOFUPS

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