When I was 17 or 18, and still knew everything, I read this quote from a deceased dude named Will Rogers: “I never met a man I didn’t like”.
(For the benefit of any non geezer readers of this blog (maybe just a few?), Will Rogers (1879–1935) was a Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor. He traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies, wrote more than 4,000 nationally-syndicated newspaper columns, and became a world-famous figure. Rogers was adored by the American people, and was the top-paid movie star in Hollywood at the time. He died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post, when their small plane crashed in Alaska Territory.
Never met a man he didn’t like? “Impossible, what an idiot!”, and I was OK for about 15-20 years with my “what an idiot” opinion of his statement. But maybe around the time I was pushing 40, had lived a little bit, and spent 20 years in business, I thought: “well, maybe he really means that he looks for the good in people and ignores the rest.”
Well, that’s pretty nice, no? Good for him! So, I was cool with that understanding for another 15 years or so, until I started reading stuff on psychology, underwent some rigorous personal trainings, (including becoming a life coach), and thus came face to face with my own “shadow”.
Described by Carl Jung, as “the person we would rather not be”, our “shadows” contain the parts of ourselves, (negative AND positive), which from our earliest years, we have tried to hide or deny so as to be more acceptable to others, (and even more, to ourselves). Our shadow says: “I’m not OK”, but in fact, it holds the truth of who we really are.
Has an action (or the behavior) of someone triggered a strong negative feeling in you? If so, you are being reminded of something in yourself that you haven’t owned and integrated. Ditto with excellent qualities which you admire in others: They’re in you too, waiting to be owned, released and manifested in the world.
So, getting back to Will Rogers, my new latest understanding (3rd one) is: He was OK with himself, so he didn’t need to put his stuff onto anyone else. I think maybe this one is pretty close.
Practice tip: The next time something (an event or a person) in your environment gets your attention in a significant way, ask yourself: “Am I “informed” by this event, or am I “affected” by it? If the former, it was a neutral event. If the latter, your heart is asking you to “inquire within”. You have beautiful work to do.
Happy, happy new year, and please…
Be kind to yourself,
Metta,
Michael
