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Panic (fear and irrationality) stems from a loss of control: the world does not operate as we anticipated.
Yuval Noah Harari says upheavals are much better met with bewilderment. At least bewilderment does not emanate from self-assured pride, but is more open to recognizing the fluctuating mystery of reality and our place within it.
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Going into the lion’s den is entering a space of performance seeded with risk: a situation where you cannot be who you are.
It is a space where victory is survival. Yet the lion’s den can function as a crucible or oracle of insight: this is the world and us within it.
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Honor and glory are externally gifted. Contextual bestowed tokens, that can be stripped as quickly as given.
Character and virtue are internal.
The complication is not to confuse external honor (validation) for personal worth, to not conflate approval with character.
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“nowadays one can talk with anyone, and it must be admitted that peoples opinions are exceedingly sensible, yet the conversation leaves one with the impression of having talked to an anonymity…” – Soren Kierkegaard
There is a slide into abstract sensibility: modernity leads from authentic individuality into a “representation” of an opinionated individual. Kierkegaard was concerned that the effacing of the individual for polite equality (democratic banality) in public life works its way inward to our private relationships.
~ Matthew Crawford, “The World Beyond Your Head”
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How much of our identity do we form around what we are not? This would be negative identification, keeping us concentrated on what we loathe or despise rather than focused on what we love.
This is not a new idea, just one that I need to be reminded of on occasion: your focus determines who you are and the decisions you make.
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Soren Kierkegaard distinguishes between objective truth and subjective truth. We can argue empirical (objective) reality while the felt truth of the (subjective) self must be taken at face value.
To deeply understand faith, Jazz music, or falling in love they must be experienced; they cannot be apprehended only through reading or observing.
This leads to a rich set of challenges for how to share and communicate reality with others.
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“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek” Joseph Campbell
Retrieving the treasure is not nearly as important as being the kind of person who takes that first step into the cave.
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Deciduous trees use vital resources to grow leaves, only to discard them in the fall as a blanket of decay. Next year, they do it all over again.
Our economic, rational self rejects this logic of recirculation for a linear logic of grasping, owning and hoarding. This is, clearly, unnatural.
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If you are seeking the authentic you, the unadulterated authenticity of the unique self, it would only be revealed when you are by yourself, without the distractions or pressures of others.
Yet, who we really are might only come from the challenges of interacting with others, otherwise your conception of self is untested.
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There are multiple versions of the self we show the world. This engenders a “shadow self” anchored to problems and secrets, binding us to failures.
Peter Pan caught his shadow, unwilling to let the dark trickster slip away. The lesson is to integrate the shadow as a dark reflection of ourselves necessary to becoming whole. After all, it is our shadow… no one else’s.
