Who should be your teachers? What should be your teachers?
And why do you need teachers?
Everyone thinks they should know more, have more. Be right more. Look better more often. Have more liberty, more stuff, less annoying stuff.
But no one teaches you how to let go, how to become free… again.
Let go? Hell yeah.
Most soul corrections, in fact the whole of humanity, with rare exceptions, spend their lifetime compensating for some inane incident that a more intelligent species would have shaken off… no big deal.
But not the Bandar-log, the just out of the monkey evolutionary phase homo sapiens… no, they are not intelligent enough. Even monkeys are more intelligent… don’t be offended, I’ll explain.
No, homo sapiens finds its excuse for not becoming all they can be, for abusing themselves and others, in their rear view mirrors.
Where they see abuse, slights, no power, injustice, embarrassment, fear, hurt, powerlessness, no acceptance, what have you… and…
they are intentionally, willfully, re-creating the same thing in their lives…
- trying to fix it or
- trying to justify their miserable behavior today.
My version was trying to fix it.
But as soon as I realized that there was nothing wrong, I stopped trying to fix it… or more precisely, as soon as I saw that something wasn’t wrong, I stopped trying to fix it.
It was as if the sun came out for the first time.
I remember driving on the Garden State Parkway (NJ) and I saw sky, trees, for the first time. The very first time.
Suddenly I didn’t need to concern myself, 100%, with the road, with what I was thinking, being in my head: my cone of vision suddenly opened up, and I could see the whole world. It didn’t last long, a few days, but I knew it was significant.
I knew that I saw the future, and the future was beautiful and worth working towards.
What happened before that trip down on the Garden State Parkway is that I got a glimpse of, for a fleeting moment, that there was nothing wrong, what happened wasn’t wrong, I wasn’t a failure, and therefore the future was open. Wide open.
This was in 1987. This was already my second such glimpse into reality. The first one was two years earlier.
Fast forward to today, 2019, I am now free. There is nothing in my rear view mirror worth looking at, and therefore the future can be so good, it is even surprising.
One of the things that strikes me, still, as unbelievable, is that things that were wholly impossible, not even worth dreaming about, are “threatening” to become reality. Threatening, I say, because they are in promise form… but previously, until just now, they didn’t even live as a promise… So something is happening, and this is what this article is about.
Two things happened this morning:
- 1. got an email from a student whose “CASE” is that she is slighted. I investigated her claim that she is double-billed, which is easy for me: I have the data and I have the know-how. And also: if I did double bill her, I want to know, I want to give her money back… even though I like money, just like anyone I know.
Turned out that I did not double bill her… But I looked at her whole history with me, and I saw that she suspects being slighted all day, all night, 24/7, and she is ready to lash out when the suspicion looks justified.
Driving with her attention wholly at the rear view mirror.
- 2. I read this story in an email… and I am going to, shamelessly, rip it off, and apologize to the sender later… lol.
Here is the story: Kicked, beaten abandoned as a pup
If you think you have insurmountable problems and the world is closing in on you, let me tell you about a dog named William.
- William’s parents were taken away from him when he was a pup.
- He shuffled in and out of four different homes.
- Twice, he’s been beaten, kicked, and abandoned by the side of the road.
- He’s only seven pounds with huge ears and has a bowlegged gait. Plus, he has a slight overbite.
- You would never guess from this sad upbringing that today strides a confident, smiling, always a tail-wagging dog.
- He strides purposefully, fearlessly, greeting even the biggest dogs.
- So despite life’s challenges, he never gives up or uses his background as an excuse to be held back, handicapped, or left out.
PS. Try not to let your past hold you back any longer. And when it does, just think of William.
Really. A dog named William is way ahead of you, kid. He is happy, because he isn’t looking in his rear view mirror to find out what’s going on… He is looking at where he is at.
- He isn’t trying to fix what was “wrong”…
- He isn’t trying to prove that he is good enough
- He doesn’t try to buy respite for another day by pleasing everybody
- He isn’t barking at everyone because they may want to slight him
- He isn’t spending all his energy doing good and not claiming it… allowing another dog to take the credit. He takes the credit where credit is due.
- He isn’t talking incessantly, trying to get the same “bullying” he experienced as a pup
- He doesn’t think it is below his dignity, that he is disrespected, when someone says: don’t put your glass on my table!
- He doesn’t still suffer the consequences of the ugly blue coat he was forced to wear when he was younger.
No. He looks into the present, and the present is always interesting.
- The present always has opportunities for mischief, investigation, getting into trouble… learning new tricks, or meeting new challenges.
- He sleeps when he is tired, and runs circles around the slowpokes when it is time to go for a walk.
Learn from William. He is a better teacher to you than most of your past.
Because there was nothing ever wrong in your past, and none of it can be fixed anyway. It was what it was. Today is a new day…
Of course, homo sapiens need to learn to tell wrong from what happened. Reality from story. And that is what the Playground is about. Learning to tell the difference. So you can be like William. A happy being.
The Playground is a program, and I am very selective of who I allow into it… After all I want to enjoy spending time with you for me to have any self-respect.
Find out more here
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