Having spent a bit of time over the past week, flipping TV channels, looking for some mentally uplifting programs from which I could learn something new, I was again overwhelmed with the amount of TV gossip we are exposed to. We are definitely enveloped in a world where TV and other media are obsessed with personal scandal.
Okay, I have to confess that I parked myself in front of these programs, too.
I will admit that I am intrigued as much as the next guy, about what humans do to add some excitement or drama to their lives. Heck, there are times when I feel that being under public scrutiny may be a lot better than another day in my rut! No, no, it’s okay! The feeling is gone!
Are we so interested in all this drama because we are all one community and we want to call on our ‘therapist instincts’ to help others? Maybe. Do we want to agree with the TV commentators, to disagree, to gloat, or to provide answers that match something of our own choosing? It’s so darned confusing, isn’t it? Myself, I pass from one mode to another almost seamlessly!
Yeah, it’s the old ‘cause and effect’ conversation. It works very well when we are investigating the inner lives that have been made public by ‘personal calamity.’ Using the brilliant genius of hindsight, we quickly connect the dots and ‘figure out’ what caused those folks to end up in today’s situations as resulting from earlier experiences and influences in their lives.
The interesting thing is that while we might be persuaded to censor our own assumptions due to a lack of any serious credentials, those who are considered ‘the experts’ usually make the same sorts of assessments that we do.
Naturally, that tends to reinforce the idea that we were correct after all, and as savvy as the ‘experts.’ Why is this so? Well, I have heard it said that ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ and that seems to cover it for me! Of course, it also makes me conclude that an ‘expert’ is merely ‘someone from outta town.’
Okay, having said all of that….that’s not what I think is the important thing to ponder in this whole exercise. That’s always the easy part, and there does always seem to be another side more difficult to accept or grasp. This is the part we tend to not look at, since we might be living in a house of cards, so to speak.
We live in a world of blame and spin, I assert. I haven’t spoken directly to everyone or observed everyone to verify this, so this is my own opinion. However, there is some evidence of popularity of this premise by the large followings of these private-life revelation types of TV and talk-shows. This is in addition, of course, to the normal interest we have in each other’s personal lives as fellow humans.
We could get into a discussion of ‘he who is without blame’ or such, and that has become too much of a glib cliché to have any meaning anymore. There is merit in it somewhere, of course, but it just doesn’t work for me to dwell on it. It feels like another ‘finger pointer.’
Another way to look at life, a look that might matter more, is from the perspective of one’s true gift or calling. This gift is not a skill or aptitude, though matching a skill to the gift would be nice. Our gift is the ‘soul thing’ that will give our lives what we truly love as a self-expression.
It does not matter if we are not very good at how we express that gift. What matters is being engaged with it in our lives.
We might suppress our gift, or have it suppressed for us. Even if we acquire great and rewarding skills in life, not living our gift will likely create an ongoing internal conflict that may result in some weird and unsatisfying external actions. We are not being true to ourselves and things can get all screwed up.
The big mess we create may be the soul, urging us to stop and take a closer look at discovering the gift we were born to express. So, it matters a lot if we remove all labels from folks. Who they are is not what they have done. What they have done could be a mistake on the path of their real life journey.
So, what matters is not how good we look to others and what we acquire in life, but what has us be true to ourselves, doing what we are destined to do. Hey, I like that! Now, if I can keep control over my inclination to be judge and jury of others, that would matter a lot as well!
Rich
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