A depressed, messed up pilot takes his issues out on a plane load of innocents, and people express surprise that the company he works for didn't know. I understand the need to point fingers, but I don't know what anyone who walks past me on the street is thinking or feeling. It is such a masked world! What surprises me is that it doesn't happen more often, given the society wide prohibition against owning and admitting our personal issues, our shadow, our emotional pain and confusion. There is no one answer to the madness of the world, but I am certain that developing a practice of inviting- rather than shunning- people to share their pain with each other would go a long way to easing the suffering on this planet. There is so much misplaced aggression, much of it because we are conditioned to repress our anger, our grief, our confusion, in the name of social acceptability. For God's sake- when are we going to give others permission to take off their masks, disguises and adaptations and share their truths with their fellow humans? When are we going to realeyes that we are all in this together, that we are all hiding something fundamentally human below a needless bushel of shame? When are we going to sit down together and share our shadow freely, like friends on a confusing journey through time? It's like this giant avoid-fest that does little more than perpetuate suffering and insane behavior. I assure you- there are no thoughts, feelings or issues that someone else hasn't experienced. We are all traveling down similar roads. It's time for a new paradigm that begins by throwing our masks in the garbage and inviting one another to share our truths, warts and all. Invited Self-Revealing and Lovingly Supported Release would be a wonderful place to begin a truly authentic new earth.
Jeff Brown
