Radical Uniqueness and your real needs: Thoughts on Self-Knowledge
Radical Uniqueness and your real needs.
Thoughts on Self-Knowledge.
Last Saturday morning I went running with my daughter. She's pretty fit and has a pretty comfortable and fast tempo when she runs. I enjoy running with her, but I don't enjoy killing myself at it. For her, running more slowly is a mild form of torture. She kept asking me if I could run a bit faster to keep up with her. On the one hand, I wanted to run with her. On the other, I didn't look forward to spending any time in the hospital. I was in a dilemma.
Yesterday I went running with my wife. I run about 4 or 5 times a week. She runs, especially in the winter, around once every two weeks. Her running is more like fast walking. We had a lot to talk about and we were both looking forward to running together. Still, running (or walking) that slowly is no fun at all. I was in a dilemma.
I'm not the first and I certainly won't be the last who uses running as a metaphor for life. We all have strong personal needs. We all have strong social needs. When these needs conflict, we all find creative ways of integrating them. How creative and how appropriate these ways are determine the quality of our lives. Being TRU to ourselves goes hand in hand with being TRU to ALL our needs, including the social ones.
As the bard so aptly said: "This above all: To thine own self be TRU!" Of course, these words likely meant different things to Shakespeare's audience than to us today. In addition, they were uttered by Polonius, something of a buffoon, or a 'tedious old fool', as Hamlet himself said. So on the one hand, being TRU to yourself is the wisdom of a fool; superficial, banal and trite. Yet on the other, being TRU to yourself is really the only possible way to live: not being true to yourself means being phony, fake or fraudulent. Sounds like a dilemma!
People want things from us. Constantly! For one reason or another, we do our best to fulfill these requests (or demands). Whether for love, for money, for career, for power, for influence, etc., etc. fulfilling these requests often means making compromises or even sacrificing what we know to be good for ourselves. That's life. Coming more and more into contact with who we are and what we need is a part of maturity. Satisfying others needs AND our own elegantly is a part of this maturity. That's also life. The balance between these social needs and personal needs changes from day to day. On Wednesday I might run with my daughter the whole time and push myself a bit. Saturday, I'd run for a while, then we'd run separately for a while. There may not be hard-and-fast rules governing this mixture, but there are guidelines and commonalities from one to another. One of these guidelines is summed up by the ancient Greek phrase γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton:
know thyself!
Sounds simple, I know, but its essence is a lifetime journey. Of course, it would be great if there were some guarantee that sooner or later this self-knowledge would occur. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) there is not! It would also be great if we knew to a surety that we alone could accomplish it. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) there is not! This means first of all, that self-knowledge often requires conscious effort. Second of all it means that it often requires precise and powerful feedback from OTHERS.
We are taught many things in school…math, language skills, geography, social studies, science, etc. What we're not taught is how to know ourselves and how to be TRU to what we know. Just the opposite! There are many in education who are convinced that being TRU to yourself is just the opposite of what 'schooling' is for. Being 'rebellious' at school, which many of us surely were, is about just this dilemma. How do I, as a student, take advantage of the knowledge imparted without sacrificing so much of what I know myself to be that I hardly recognize myself?!
You ARE unique! This is so despite what others might have us believe. As unique as a snowflake. As unique as your own fingerprint. As unique as the frequencies of your own voice. There is not, never was nor ever will be anything like YOU!
Just imagine if there were a short, intense course of study outlining the principles of TRU, of Radical Uniqueness. Imagine a course where you not only get theories and models of gnōthi seauton, but also tailor-made exercises and techniques for actually LIVING radical uniqueness. You've finally arrived at an internet site where imagination and reality combine.
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We're both looking forward to meeting you, to hearing in what ways you're being TRU to who you REALLY are and to support you in continuing!
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