You don’t have to be good

Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash

So says the first line of Mary Oliver’s incandescent poem, “Wild Geese”. Have you read it? If not, I highly recommend it, as I do all her poems. Although maybe you’re not into poetry. Maybe you prefer rally driving, in which case, you’re probably not wasting your driving time reading this… And why would you?

You were probably told as a child that you had to be good. This usually meant curbing some kind of anti-social behaviour or other. For example:

1. Yes, you must kiss weird Great Aunt Mabel who you’ve never met before even though she has a hair growing out of the mole on her chin.
2. No, you must not talk and wriggle around in church even though your legs ache, you’re bored out of your tiny little mind and the hour long service feels like three hours.
3. Yes, you must share your toy with the evil kid from across the street, who you know is going to break it, even though it’s your most treasured possession. You don’t see your parents sharing their brand new car with his parents. But pointing out such a fact is insolent.
4. No, you must not whack your sister about the head with your lego when she calls you a poo poo head.

Now, I’m not one to advocate violence, (that really wouldn’t be good), but it does seem that these fairly common childhood experiences are likely to teach us to…