The Unfoldment: The Organic Path to Clarity, Power, and Transformation by Kramer Neil

Author:Kramer, Neil [Kramer, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mysticism
Publisher: Career Press
Published: 2012-05-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Cult Indulgences

As we move toward the end of our childhood, we are taught that amassing personal responsibility is a key stage in our social development. We are positively encouraged to welcome it into our lives and shoulder as much of it as we can. It is seen as a mark of maturity: The more we have, the more mature we are. After all, few things appear more grown-up than the stressed-out, task-juggling self-harassment of adulthood.

As a young child, I remember being over at a friend’s house one evening when his father returned home from work. We’d been playing upstairs, and so when he walked in through the front door, he didn’t know we were watching him from behind the wooden railings of the landing. He carefully placed his leather briefcase on the floor and then flopped down into a chair in the hallway. He sat there motionless for a long time. We silently watched him, not quite sure what he was doing or why. Later that evening, as we all sat around the family dinner table, my friend’s father told his wife that he didn’t like his job. In fact, he loathed it and had never truly enjoyed his work there for the last 20 years. It wasn’t clear who was more dismayed by this announcement, him or her. They talked for a while about the other things that he could do—different kinds of organizations he could work for, potential new career directions, or even starting up his own business. In the end, they agreed that if he could just stick it out for another 10 years with his current employer, he would be eligible for early retirement. Yes, that would be the best thing to do. We continued to eat our dinner. Something felt very wrong at that table. At the time, I didn’t quite understand why, but I never forgot it.

The same dynamic continues to play out in countless homes all over the world, each and every day. It is not at all peculiar. Indeed, it is recognized as one of the unspoken but fundamental duties of adulthood—to grin and bear it. However mind-numbingly grinding life can become, we are expected to just keep sucking it up and plodding on. The result is that people are living lives they do not like. They are conducting themselves in a way that is not in accordance with their truth. They are upholding things that they know are dishonorable. Because so many people are caught up in this way of living, it is often genuinely mistaken for being just the way things are. The truth is, it is only the way things are if we wish it to be.

Naturally, we cannot always have what we want, all the time. This is quickly learned as children when we realize that not every day can be full of candy, play, and television. If it was, there would be an epidemic of obese, toothless, antisocial, illiterate, brainwashed children stumbling through the streets. Though that might happen from time to time here and there, it’s not representative of most young people.

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