This title, “Moving Beyond the Pale” came to my mind the minute I started writing tonight so I thought I’d look it up to see if there was anything to it and found several stories and songs with “beyond the pale” and one religious song that used all of the words “moving beyond the pale”. What I felt when this title came to me was to “move” physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually beyond unacceptable behavior.

I was very proud of myself this morning while waiting for the Dental Assistant to glue back on the temporary crown that I’d popped off in a flossing frenzy, that I picked up the 40th Anniversary Issue of the Smithsonian Magazine (instead of a People Magazine) and fell upon an article written by senior editor T.A. Frail who interviewed satirist Carl Hiaasen. Carl is known for writing very satirical novels about humanity so it shouldn’t have come as any kind of a shock to me that his interview was heavily saturated in the same way when he said that any speech he gives now is entitled, “The Case Against Intelligent Design”.

All kidding aside, perhaps it’s that I’ve been on this planet long enough to start recognizing patterns and growth in human behavior or perhaps I’m actually able to see where history is repeating itself but whatever the case lately it really seems that there is a big divide happening now between those people who want to understand as much as they can about the world and the people around them and how it all works and fits together and those people who really couldn’t (or wouldn’t) give a flip about any of it. For some people who may be caught in the varying shades of gray in-between the two, they may look up in wonder and ask what the heck is going on anyway? It really all boils down to where we want to put our focus on and/or about life.

I posted a question to LinkedIn this week on this subject and asked if people really thought humanity was devolving. God bless my friends and acquaintances on LI who humor me by answering questions that previously, when I was younger, would have gotten the “you think too much Lynn” response. One of the responders put it in a way that I really appreciated. He suggested that it wasn’t so much whether humans were good or bad or whether what was going on now in the world, in terms of human behavior, was good or bad but rather to pay attention to who is seeking to understand. Kind of made me stop in my tracks because although I believe seeking to understand is one of the most important behaviors we can do, by asking the question I was allowing that dark side of my petty little brain out to play by focusing on the problem rather than the solution. I can so gather up the moldy parts of my brain that can only see the dank and dark side of life and hold a little party in the den of my brain rather than dare to stick my head above the din and look for the rays of sunshine that are out there. For they are out there.

So, as you can see, moving beyond the pale for me today means to move beyond the knee jerk easy response to humanity and our behaviors today when we say that we’re just all going to hell in a hand basket and that’s all there is to it. That’s too easy.

Looking for the beauty in the midst of the cacophony of life, now there is an elegant way to find grace!