It was a dark and stormy night for men and women. It was really late and the road was full of roof tiles and branches . . .
That’s one start to my upcoming book on men. I don’t know, the opening might need some editing.
For the next months I’ll share parts of the book as it emerges.
This fable from Roger Walsh shows the shape of the problem and hints at the shape of the solution:
Imagine an animal finding a novel object. This object is dark and light, has an unfamiliar smell, and tastes terrible. Needless to say, the animal spits it out in disgust.
Now imagine that a woman from an illiterate tribe discovers the object. It is very curious indeed--it opens and closes, is soft and flexible, and has squiggly marks on it. Being a smart woman, she soon makes a wonderful discovery;: the object is superb for starting fires.
Now imagine that a Western child finds the object. He immediately recognizes it as a book. However, because he cannot read, he has no clue what it says.
Then the same object is picked up by a contemporary adult. She begins reading it, but quickly throws it away because she cannot understand it, and it makes bizarre claims about the nature of reality.
Then the book is picked up by a physicist. He opens it and is awed when he recognizes that it describes a profound new understanding of quantum physics. Finally, the book is found by a woman who is both a physicist and contemplative. She also appreciates the brilliant quantum physics and delights in the new understandings it offers, while simultaneously recognizing the limited ability of all words and concepts to grasp the fundamental nature of reality.
That’s us! That’s our problem and our direction. There’s miseducation followed by awakening. There’s no blame. Most all of us are living in a misapprehension about the world based on wrong assumptions. The story of men and women is part of a larger story about the world. But it’s an important one because it’s so close to home. Everybody has a man-woman story that’s intimately connected to how we show up. It can be worked with, better and better understood. Rewritten.
It’ll change like the book in the tale.
Reality is always more than what we see but we tend to forget. The age-old mutuality and rough and tender love between man and woman is still there. It doesn’t have a mark on it. And it gets better and it needs to get better.
Getting it right has a lot to do with how we show up in the world! That means that waking up to our experience as a man is also a way of waking up to what’s going on in the world. It helps us see the shift in perception and mindset that’s available. And needed.
I hope you’ll stick around and contribute your thoughts, comments and cheers as I get this done. Be part of it.
Thank you my friend.
Forever unfolding or forever stuck. Our attribution of meaning can keep us stuck. Our not knowing can be our way forward.
I look forward to your unfolding tale.
Warmly ... John
Looking forward to reading your book and the understandings it will disclose!