Bee Splat

Source

Confession: when my cousins and I were kids we thought that honey just somehow sort of grew inside of bees so when there were dead bees stuck to the grills of various vehicles in our yards throughout summer, we would lick our fingers and stick them in the bee splat and then taste it and I swear it was sweet like eating gummie-bears (or maybe gummie-bees in this particular circumstance), and obviously I either had an incredibly underdeveloped palate or I was super-skilled at tricking my taste buds into believing anything because oddly, we did this for a few summers, and by we I probably mean I did this periodically for years and my cousins did it once, maybe twice and if we’re being honest I was likely the only one who thought bees were flying fuzzy sacks of honey yet I was so completely convinced that bee splat was indeed honey I bet, had my teacher asked, I could have written a persuasive essay on the topic. For me, it was a fact. Actually more than a fact, it was science.

Here’s my point: I was kind of a dumb kid.

Here’s another point: it’s never too late. Many people can and do change. However, there’s something important about this change I refer to. One must want to change. One must actually work on changing. It’s doable. That’s the thing though. Before this can happen, one must realize that change is necessary. Self-awareness is key. Change won’t happen without it. That’s the kicker.

Before change could kick me in the head a few times, I had to learn to acknowledge and accept my foolishness. Sure, I’d still like to believe bees are tiny sacks of honey buzzing around like video game coins I could collect and pop in my mouth if I could only jump high enough but well, that’s nuts. Instead, honey is bee puke. (Or something like that; I still haven’t completely figured this out.)

So here’s my final point: we only begin to change when we change our thinking. We have to recognize that we don’t know everything even when we think we do. We have to get comfortable with doubt. With error. With vulnerability. With mistakes. With our fallibility.

And all joking aside, why must we do this? Because it teaches humility. The most secure people are almost always the most humble too. As the saying goes, “swallow your pride occasionally; it’s not fattening you know.”