Don’t look for consistency – we all contain multitudes.
I love this excerpt from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, 51
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Whitman acknowledged what is true, and too often ignored, about all of us. We all contradict ourselves. We all contain multitudes.
We ask each other to be consistent – to contain no contradictions. But that’s so limiting to our ability to be ourselves, in all our multitudes.
Please accept my multitudes, I silently ask to the people around me (students, colleagues, friends). I accept your multitudes, I remind myself again and again.