Growth
“Anytime
you're going to grow, you're going to lose something. You're losing
what you're hanging onto to keep safe. You're losing habits that
you're comfortable with, you're losing familiarity.”
James
Hillman
We all hang on to
illusions. We unquestioningly believe many things about ourselves and
others, about our country, and about other cultures that we have to
adjust over the course of a lifetime. For instance, on Monday, we
celebrated, as we always do, Columbus Day in the U.S. The day is
supposed to honor Christopher Columbus, who is credited with
“discovering” America. Now, however, many cities and states have
voted to change that designation to Indigenous Peoples Day, or Native
American Day. Columbus never set foot on the mainland of this
country. Instead, he launched a major genocide of the native people
of the Caribbean islands. After centuries of celebrating him, we are
adjusting our perception. I am only beginning to comprehend just how
sanitized our history books were when I was growing up, about
slavery, about our own genocide of native people. Letting go of
life-long illusions is not easy.
The stripping away of
cherished, yet false, notions is painful. It reminds me of peeling
off sunburned skin—it's dead, but it still hurts to pull it away.
Underneath, everything feels raw and unreliable. When we have to
adjust our ideas about ourselves— our relationships, our
capabilities, our mistakes, our false beliefs—we go through a
similar process. We question whether it's better to rip that skin
away fast, or remove it a little at a time. Either way, there will be
pain. On the other side of illusion, there is clarity for a while,
until the next layer rises to the surface. Growth is like that—it
keeps coming and demanding change.
We are in a process of
ripping off dead skin right now—of taking off blinders and viewing
what's real. Here in America, we are seeing that in spite of two
hundred years of progress in civil rights, our African American
citizens are still dealing with unmitigated prejudice. We are seeing
the effects of Capitalism gone mad—cities in which people who do
not make six-figure salaries cannot afford to live; others paying
rents that are more than half of their income. It reminds me of
feudal times when there existed the lord's palace, enclosed by high
walls with guards, surrounded by peasant hovels. We are experiencing
incredible climate related destruction, but half of us still cling to
our blinders about its cause. Our proud notion of “rugged
individualism” has turned into a population of gun-toting, trigger
happy, hooligans roaming our streets. We love our illusions because, falsely, they make us feel safe. To out grow them, we have to change.
Growth, whether mental or
spiritual, is a process of stripping away layers of old habits, old
prejudices, and outmoded beliefs. It hurts to give them up, but
that's the price of truth. A snake cannot crawl back into it's old
skin—it's too small, too restrictive, and just plain dead. Luckily,
new skin grows, and so will ours. Moving into the future less
confident of our superiority, our rightness, is the very best way to
go forward. It makes room for more growth, and for the freedom of
others to grow as well.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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