The Undiscovered Country

Ego's Tricks

karabu's last entry ("Invalid Entry" ) mentioned a new contest set up by earlybird. It's to encourage the participants to write every day:

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It's limited to 10 people, but I asked for a spot anyway. I'm on the list for Round 2 which begins next week. If two people on the original list drop out, then I'll get a spot. I decided although I'm not an official participant, nothing says I can't write entries based on the subject of the day.

Lately I've found my entries lacking substance - philosophical substance. Understandable considering my life is full right now. Still I miss writing about deeper issues such as my faith.

This sense of discontent is not far from the first writing challenge. I was supposed to have written it yesterday, but I forgot to bring the start of this entry home from work. Perhaps I'll end up writing two entries today. We'll see.

Today's (Yesterday's) challenge:

"One of the great dangers of transformational work is that the ego attempts to sidestep deep psychological work by leaping into the transcendent too soon. This is because the ego always fancies itself much more 'advanced' than it actually is."

-- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson

I like to believe I'm a deep thinker. Life is full of so many wonders, how can I not want to dig deeper, whether it be the way people treat one another, how we think of ourselves as time passes, and the attention to detail God paid in creating a single flower down to its DNA?

But I also tend to be lazy. Sometimes I don't want to know more about how a butterfly flies, or why religion and politics can tear apart relationships. I have my opinions, my experiences, and based on those, darn it, I'm right, right, right, and anyone who disagrees is wrong, wrong, wrong (Did I put enough commas in that sentence fer ya?).

That's not to say truth is relative. On the contrary. Truth is concrete. The difficulty comes in not knowing enough facts to make a proper conclusion. I believe society has driven many to believe truth is relative, and what's true and right for one person is not true and right for another.

How can that be when many of these so-called truths contradict themselves? It's like saying I'm both alive and dead at the same time. While theoretical physics states that can be possible, in the tangible universe where I live, it's not.

That's my advanced thinking for today - so says my very proud ego. Given enough time and more digging into the truth of things, I may change my mind. Right now, I'm too lazy.