Are you "the decider?"

Living in the Real World

“If I learned anything from having cancer, it's that unless there's a physical need—such as needing air to breathe or needing to stop a wound from bleeding—there's no reason to rush, no matter the level of urgency being showered on us by others.”

Mark Nepo (Who Will Live Your Life? Parabola, Fall 2015)

We live in a rushed society. Everyday, we give away vital parts of ourselves to the desire on the part of our culture to work harder, play harder, drive faster, be first in line, beat the other team, and on, and on. I remember a story my former husband, Joe, told about his first summer working for his grandfather's company, constructing buildings on the University of North Carolina campus. His grandfather believed everyone should start at the bottom and work their way up, so his first assignment was to dig trenches for plumbing pipes. Joe started hard and fast, swinging a pick ax and flinging out great wads of dirt. He noticed how slowly the other men worked, rhythmic and paced, and considered that “the lazy man's way.” He was motivated to dig even harder and faster. By ten o'clock in the morning, he was exhausted, couldn't lift his arms one more time. The other men were still swinging their picks, slowly, methodically, and continued to do so until the work day ended.

Mark Nepo asks the question, “So, who will live your life? Who will you dare entrust that to?” Will we live it striving for a goal that is dictated by our culture, or will we learn to live in our own skin? Will we learn our own pace, and our own truth. Will we listen to our inner voice, or will we conform to a world in a mad dash to get “ahead?” Nepo again, “...there are times when not going at all is tantamount to arriving.”

I am often told that I don't understand the “real world.” This is probably true. I don't understand a great deal of our human obsession with speed and power, because so much of it is simply incomprehensible. But, I am learning to better know my authentic world. The one thing we can do to slow the hurtling train we call the real world, is to get off the tracks. We can be the decider. We can set our own pace. We can listen to our own voice above the cacophony, and follow our own path. If enough of us did that, the real world would change.

                                                        In the Spirit,

                                                            Jane