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What is your personal myth?
Swiss psychiatrist, Carl G. Jung explored this question in his book, The Symbols of Transformation. He concluded that we are not primarily driven by sexual desires as promulgated by Freud, but by our own personal myth- The one thing above all else that you live for.
If I lost everything I hold dear: My family, my books, my home, my friends and opportunities for spiritual growth, what would I live for? What would sustain me? As I pondered my own personal myth, I was reminded of a scene from my childhood. When I was seven years old, my parents had over a couple to our apartment in the Bronx. The man constantly and in a brash manner ordered my oldest sister who was ten at the time to fetch him a drink, a book, some food, pretty much anything and everything. Finally, she had enough of acting like his slave and said: “Do I have keep doing what you say all day?” He began to berate my sister and my father let it happen. I had to step in.
“Why don’t you to tell him to leave her alone?” I said- chastising my father.
He then turned to my father and asked permission to discipline me. My father consented and gave him one of his leather belts.
“Who do you think you are speaking to your father like that?” he said as he waived the thick brown leather belt over my face.
I looked over to my father who was stoic and immobile. I looked over at my mother and sisters who were all standing together, helpless and in tears. My mother was yelling at him to stop.
Saying that this was between my father and I and he had no right to discipline me. He ignored her. I began to cry.
“Say you are sorry.” the man said. I said nothing. My father said nothing. I felt so alone. My father had abandoned me and my mother was afraid of intervening.
For my seven year old ego, I had no frame of reference to help me make sense of this traumatic experience except for the crucifixion. My accuser was brutally threatening me. My mother and sisters stood by crying but unable to help me and my God had abandoned me.
“I’m going to give you one last chance to say you are sorry before I use this belt.”
I finally relented and said I was sorry which put an end to my torture. I looked at my father and saw remorse for what he had allowed. He did not say as much but I knew that he was caught up in the moment and he knew not what he was doing. Although I did not feel I deserved to be treated this way, I felt compassion for my troubled dad.
My accuser thought it best to call it a night and we all went to bed never to speak of this incident.
I know to this day that I did the right thing by intervening for my sister. This is my myth. This is what is most important to me. To help those that cannot help themselves, to give voice to the voiceless. If I lost everything I hold dear in life, I would find my life’s work in helping others.
There is a strong current of fear and hopelessness in the American psyche. The current finds a voice in the words of Chris Matthews’ right before Obama’s first State of the Union speech, “Roosevelt had it wrong.” He declared. “The only thing you have to fear isn’t fear itself. People are out of work. This fear is real.”
Well yes, the fear is real and very powerful but it can be overcome. Fear can be overcome by not being afraid of the fear. Witnessing it as a passing, albeit strong emotion and deciding to act in spite of it; believing that better days are ahead. That even if we do not see the next job yet, it is coming our way and it will be better than any job we have ever had up to this point. These new and higher thought forms do a funny thing to fear and the ego; it turns them from your master to your servant. Fear is real, but it does not have to rule you. You can live a life aligned with your gifts and life purpose in whatever vocation you choose.
It is said that the 70% of the American workforce unhappy at their jobs, are simply not wired to do the work they are doing. They may be good at it but they don’t enjoy it and to be wired to do a job means you have both- skill and satisfaction. Instead of looking at the hopelessness of a 10% unemployment rate, why don’t we take this opportunity to find the jobs that we are all wired to do? Fear will keep us from even looking for these types of jobs. Hope reveals entrepreneurs, leaders, teachers, counselors, healers and writers from within those that are currently unemployed. Hope also reveals men and woman perfectly wired to design, build, construct, and repair. This time is a glorious opportunity to realign all of our talents with our life’s work. Let’s call it the ultimate market correction.
The answers come from within. Fear just keeps us from even asking any empowering questions. If you didn’t get the job you applied for, ask yourself: “Is there any part of me that did not want to get this job?” Envision a job that makes you happy. There are people for whom driving a truck cross country or picking up 40 lb boxes all day puts them in a state of bliss. For me, it’s helping others through my writing. Our business is to find out what puts us in a state of bliss. The rest is God’s business.
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