How much we rely on our mind. Futile, too. Often it is our default mode, when stressed or depressed. It boggles my mind, how we trust a limited perspective. We believe our interpretations and assumptions are accurate. More likely, our perspective is biased, tinctured by our past, shaped by the trauma we've experienced.
Training a Flea
You wash out a mayonnaise jar, punching holes into the lid. Place a flea inside. This insect jumps fifty to one hundred fifty times it's body length. If it was a human, it could jump from end of a football field to the other.
Once inside, this critter soon hits the lid with his noggin. It hurts, but he perseveres. Remember, he is using a flea brain. The pain increases as he persists in leaping out. Soon, he jumps just short of hitting the lid. Great idea. He no longer smacks against the covering.
Here is where his training appears. It's not good, what he learns. After several hours jumping without bouncing off the lid, the flea is conditioned. It's a bad lesson for him.
The lid is removed. The flea dies. Freedom from its glass confines, was possible. He could liberate himself from his glassy confines with his powerful legs. But after his conditioning, he stays put. He jumps short of the now-imagined lid. He is held back by earlier memories of smashing against it.
He is a trained a flea.
No different are we. The lid of earlier circumstances that once pained us, inhibits us. Even though that lid has been long gone, like scars from childhood authority figures who mistreated us. Even though their presence has been gone got many years,, we can still be fearful or angry when with our boss or a cop car is following ours. We relive the fearful feelings induced by toxic parenting or an abusive authority figure. Like the flea, we are self-domesticated.
This is where Balcony People help us transcend fear and emotional baggage that keep us within the glass jar of fear-induced limitations.
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1 comment:
Dear Innkeeper,
On this Saturday night, I am grateful...
1. To rise earlier than usual on my day off to "nip in the bud" potential issues with fish orders at work. Good thing, for several were caught and resolved, clearing the way for a peaceful Saturday.
2. Our youngest son could attend, support, and actually enjoy my nephew's Lowell High School (SF) Army ROTC Drum Corp competition at Lincoln High in SF. Glad he could connect more deeply with my brother, sister-in-law, and their children. Great fit as he too is a drummer!
3. Care-giving for my 90 year old Mom with lunch preparation and the weekly grocery shopping; a breeze...
4. Attending the tail end of an afternoon gala, non-profit fund-raiser at a friends home in Oakland, for Schools of Africa.
5. Seeing an elderly neighbor-couple; guests of my wife there, and spending quality time with them.
6. Also, meeting a fellow peace-work collaborator there, and scheduling an important International Day of Peace planning meeting for later this month.
7. Watching some of, and catching the disappointing tail-end of the Golden State Warriors loss to the L.A. Clippers in one of three NBA Playoff games.
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