FOLLOWING YOUR OWN PATH

One of the most difficult things to do is to be authentic - I mean to be true to your own inner identity without being lost in what society, and other people in your life, think that you should be doing.

Joseph Campbell said, "It takes courage to do what you want. other people have a lot of plans for you. Nobody wants you to do what you want to do. They want you to go on their trip, but you can do what you want." While his statement assumes that you are mature and self-evolved and what you want to do is not to harm or destroy others, it is a challenge to most of us who may find it difficult to discern where society's demands leave off and our own identity begins.

Every social group develops and tends to enforce social norms that members are expected to follow. This is true for every group from a family to a nation. This is a necessary step in social bonding and control. But the natural tensions between becoming a member of a culture and being an individual are varied and you can get lost in the social forms, lost to your authentic self.

Social norms like being kind, stopping at red lights, and shaking hands as a greeting are good and beneficial. Other norms are not so beneficial, like the one in some families that everyone goes to a certain school or must become a lawyer, or marry someone from a specific class or group (or gender).

The truly authentic person learns to strike a balance between the observance of social norms which are positive and productive and those that are not essential to well being and may stifle potential.

I'll close with another quote from Campbell, referring to the Knights of the Round Table as they set out in search of the Holy Grail (symbolically, the true inner self):

"You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there is a way or path, it is someone else's path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else's way, you are not going to realize your potential."

Love and Light,
RevLockard