Quirkbag Collection #4 – 11.04.25
“Yea! My crappy car. You mediocre, middle-class piece of shit. I love you!” – Michael Newman, Click (2006)
We all know that heartening scene in ‘Click’ where Adam Sandler’s character runs out of the Bed, Bath and Beyond a changed man, welcoming his mediocrity like a lottery prize if he struck one. He was relieved. He embraced his average life, grateful for all he had. I love comedies, especially those from Adam Sandler. Unsurprisingly, I think of this scene whenever people mention leading an “average” life, a “mediocre” life. Not so bad, is it?
On Average
Perhaps ‘average’ has been unduly associated with ‘bad’. ‘Average’ is not ‘bad’. In fact, ‘average’ is ‘normal’. No thanks to social media, there is more competition and comparison. We obsess over what we don’t have instead of noticing what we have. The world might feel like it’s spinning faster. (Newsflash – it’s not. It’s you.) Stop and consider this: what does average mean to you? What makes it so ‘bad’? We find ‘average’ to be ‘bad’ because we feel ‘less than’. The only person who defines ‘average’, ‘bad’ or ‘spectacular’ is you. You choose what to label your life and sometimes, we confuse the world’s label of our lives with the truth. I understood growing up that there’s nothing impressive about myself – not exactly the next Michael Phelps, Bill Gates or Adam Sandler. I am just me. You are and will be you. Again, is that so bad?
Me, Myself and Mediocrity
Mediocrity, like ‘average’, is given a bad rep. There is nothing wrong with mediocrity. My life is the gold standard of average. Somewhere along the way, I found that accepting ‘average’ and ‘mediocrity’ might hint at a chance to embrace the present, paving the way for contentment. Make no mistake – being in the present and embracing it is not settling for less or resting on any laurels. It’s simply coming up from the water for air. We strive to be better and strive to improve, but surely we must strive to embrace and enjoy what we currently have, even if it is mediocre. If anyone cares about whether your life is mediocre, it is you and you only. If I have failed to convey my point, maybe this can – here’s some bartender wisdom:
“You’re not where you want to be. You feel like you’re supposed to be somewhere else. Well, say you could snap your fingers and be wherever you wanted to be, I bet you’d still feel this way, not in the right place. Point is, you can’t be so hung up on where you’d rather be that you forget to make the most of where you are. Take a break from worrying about what you can’t control. Live a little.” – Arthur, Passengers (2016)
What About Perfectionism?
There is no perfection. We’ve all heard that perfect is the enemy of good. If there is perfect, perfectionists would become ’perfecters’ (which isn’t a thing by the way). Yes, there is nobility in striving for greatness and achievement. But there is nobility too in knowing when to pause, look out the window, see the clouds, the birds and the trees. Being average is…average. So what? Your life awaits.
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