Asking The Right Questions

This morning, as I reviewed the "hits" to this blog, I discovered that someone had made a Google search for: "asking the right questions." The number one item in the responses to this request was the article below that I first posted in May 2009.  As a reread it, I found myself in a similar quandary as the article addresses.  I am posting it again with the thought that it may also be applicable to other readers at this time.  I have often recognized that life seems to run in cycles.  As we become more aware of them and seek further understanding of them, our growth into our fuller, richer True Self may be realized.  I am continuing the process!

When I wrote that I was going to take a sabbatical in order to consider some “new” questions about my life and my purpose I didn’t know at the time just what the “new” questions were going to be.  I think I expected them to simply be a rehash of questions I have asked myself most of my life.  That is the way the journey began, but it is not how it turned out.

It seems there are points in the lives of each of us where we feel a greater need for introspection, meditation, or contemplation because we feel a bit like a boat without a rudder.  A boat without a rudder may sail along just fine, unless you want to go somewhere specific.  Then you discover that without the rudder you aimlessly drift along with little satisfaction or sense of accomplishment.

I have come to points like this several times in my life.  These plateaus where we find it necessary to take a break for a while are not necessarily negative events nor do they indicate a lack of life value.  They are simply places where we have the opportunity to review our priorities and consider altering our direction.

This time around, my questions seem to center on getting a better understanding of my feminine nature.  I wanted to better understand my feelings, my empathetic nature and why deep emotions seem to surface so dramatically for me at times.

Asking the proper question is the central action of transformation—in fairy tales, in analysis, and in individuation.  The key question causes germination of consciousness.  The properly shaped question always emanates from an essential curiosity about what stands behind.  Questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open.[1]

Somewhere within me there is an aching, a longing that has been expressing itself more and more often as deep feelings of connection with some of my fellow human beings, not necessarily anyone I know personally.  The feelings surge up when I see others hurting or feeling alone without the company of others who might be supportive in their time of need.  I may see this in a television drama, the evening news, and the newspaper or just about anywhere one hears about others and their difficulties.  It also wells up in me when I become aware of significant help someone extends to another, a random act of kindness.  Both negative and positive stories attract my sense of empathy.

The curiosity that stands behind the questions I ask myself about why I have these feelings and what I am supposed to do with them hopefully will open more widely the secret doors of my own psyche.

Often the creative life is slowed or stopped because something in the psyche has a very low opinion of us, and we are down there groveling at its feet instead of bopping it over the head and running free. In many cases what is required to aright the situation is that we take ourselves, our ideas, our art, far more seriously than we have done before. [2]

I find this notion particularly interesting.  Realizing that the blocks I might feel in my creative life could be an inner low self-image certainly is not a new notion, but seeing it in print gave me the opportunity to look at that issue again, perhaps opening the “secret doors” of my psyche.  For the most part I feel I am aware of the self-image limitations I have placed upon myself, so my questions were to get at how to handle the empathetic emotions that overwhelm me at times.  What is their productive use?  (My pragmatism and logic at work, which takes me away from the feelings and into my masculine mind.)

The larger questions to be considered are: What/who am I really?  What is my work in this life?  What do I hunger for?  What do I long for?  Additionally, I think I must come to terms with whether I believe in my ability to do what my life experiences require of me in order to enter into transformation.  Am I simply sitting on the sidelines because it is comfortable there and there is less to challenge my status quo?  Or, is my apparent sideline sitting really just an opportunity to consider new ventures and to find ways to utilize the skills and belief systems I have developed through the years?

As you can see, I have not finished my quest (and I don’t think we are designed to “finish” our quest anyway!).  However, I have gained some new insights that I plan to share in later postings, so stay tuned.

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[1] Women Who Run With the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD, page 52

[2] Ibid, Page 70

Does Anything Really Make A Difference Anymore?

One of the network channels offers a weekly news item on their program dedicated to persons who are making a difference in our sometimes-discouraging world of affairs.  This effort to show bright spots in what is often a shadowy world of indifference and self-centeredness is certainly needed.  When one news story after another can make one feel that there is little reason to be hopeful, little cause for celebrating our apparent successes, it is not difficult to understand why so many people are angry, disillusioned or just plain don’t care anymore!

I find myself slipping into that mood at times.  After the tragic years of the Bush/Cheney administration and the long-lasting destruction caused by their narrow-minded aggressive tendencies, it will be generations before we overcome the devastating effects of their so-called leadership.  Today, we need only look at the ruining of the environment in the Gulf of Mexico, the loss of livelihood of family businesses built over generations, the death of untold numbers of fish, fowl, mammals and other life forms to realize that our country (its politicians and business leaders) have abandoned the principles that made this country what it was on its way to becoming.  I say on its way to becoming because we had only begun to realize the limitless capacity of our citizens to invent, build and deploy imaginative ideas and products for the benefit of humankind.

I am not a Tea Party person nor am I a sympathizer with most of what I see them display through their thoughtless accusations and actions. Really, some of these people must be from another planet!  That we as a nation have come to the point where our mutual anger and frustration has taken on the psuedo leadership of dropout dysfunctionaries as Sarah Palin and the discredited John McCain only shows how far from understanding our democracy and its founding documents we have come.

I cannot even begin to put into words my disgust about the priorities our Congressional members have determined to be important.  What I can say is that they are clearly based on greed and avarice. The money that controls our representatives and senators has become so much a part of their function that they can in no way continue to represent the people.  They clearly are in bed with their financiers.  Look at the literal bed-hopping of the Minerals Management Agency office in Denver, responsible for granting licenses and policing the oil companies.  And, again, look at the Gulf disaster. It is government policy and lack of enforcement of big business that has largely been responsible for the chaos we are currently facing.

Even in the face of these catastrophes the Republicans maintain their belief that business does not need regulation.  It needs to be left free to market action.  This belief that business will self-control is an impossible dream when the unimaginable amounts of money to be gained are on the table, up for grabs for those who don’t give a damn about people or country! Don’t begin to disregard my comments as simply the rant of an unhappy Democrat.  I am NOT a Democrat either.  Neither of the two parties offers policies or purposes that are compatible with my own. 

What I am in favor of is the real grass roots efforts of those who are free of party dictates.  I believe wholesale change in government is necessary—Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court.  Consistent with this concept is my belief in the need for a Constitutional Convention, the purpose of which is to re-evaluate the relationship of that document to the desires and priorities of we the people.  The world we live in is a vastly different world than that of our forefathers.  Just as any business with an operational procedures manual must regularly update that document so that it represents current priorities and policies, so must our government review and update our Constitution where necessary.  It may not require any changes, but just reading it again should be a benefit.  I recently picked up a copy and read it thoroughly.  I keep it handy for when stupidity raises its ugly head so I can remind myself of what our founders really said, not what someone thought was in there.

The difficulty of bringing about change in our country today was clearly demonstrated following the last election.  A majority of people said they believed in the change Obama promised.  Unfortunately, we forgot that no one has the power to change anything where government is concerned.  I fully supported Obama and I was also swept up in the belief that here was a person who could really get it done!  Well, he couldn’t and he didn’t. Maybe his staff isn’t as good at managing government as it was in managing a campaign. It certainly does not help that the Republicans simply decided to withdraw from any role in governing.  Saying “No” was all they had to do to stop change in its tracks.  And of course we all know the Democrats are the original “bad news bears” whose way to handle differences of opinion is to form a circular firing squad.  OMG, is this not clearly apparent to the general public?  I guess not.  And because I see no real powerful leadership, I am deeply concerned.  I probably will not be around when the pillars of democracy tumble, as they surely will if nothing changes. 

So, why should I care?  Does anything really make a difference any more?  I have to find my own answer to this question, as each of you who have continued to read this far along in this essay will have to do. It is not my nature to be negative. However, I am so totally disgusted with the apparent hopelessness of the situation that I just do not have an answer.  I write.  That is something I know a little about.  I wish I were able to be eloquent enough, with opportunities sufficient to command an audience, that together we could begin to make the difference that will bring the true light of individual responsibility and strength of character to lead that is needed.

I am not going to give up.  I think I will have to give up listening to the news, however.