TavBlog: Resources, Aligning, & Wholeness Winter 2021_2

What is the first thing you know?

As a joke, the answer is “Old Jed’s a Millionaire”. It’s one of my favorites, though it will soon be too dated for anyone to ‘get it’. (It’s from the Beverly Hillbillies Intro if it's already too late!). There was a time in my life where you could start singing that theme song and anyone around you knew the words, because we had all seen the show many times. The intention of the show was to move a new-to-wealth ‘hillbilly’ family into the ‘society’ of Beverly Hills. Hilarious disasters ensued as The Clampetts misinterpreted social cues and committed every sitcom faux paus the writers could devise. In the end, their simple ‘Hillbilly’ ways always made more sense than operating under the ‘rules of polite society’, at least to them, and they often swayed their audience into their perspective.

The show debuted in 1962 and despite its many tone-deaf absurdities, 60 years later, the Clampetts remained true to their roots, exposing the complexities that accompany our greed when we ‘have a lot’. They had enough money to move freely among the ‘richest, therefore finest’, but felt no need or desire to adapt to those surroundings. Essentially, they rejected that ‘exclusive excess’ which Beverly Hills held, and still holds, so dear to their ‘hearts’. In fairness to both Ego and Soul Energies, when we lack the awareness to appreciate our gifts, we continue to cast shadows on our ability to see ourselves in wholeness, let alone offer that space to anyone else.

The truth is, there is very little that is ‘common knowledge’ among us, and with each passing day the pool of possibilities around ‘everything there is to know’ grows. Life and learning go hand in hand, naturally. Humans often fail to connect to this simple awareness, even though we ‘know’ that it sits at the crux of most of our pain, addiction, depression and anxiety. Buried deep beneath our ego concerns, there is an energetically rooted ‘plan’ in place: an organic ordering of our ‘matter’. Despite that ‘fact’, maintaining our resources and satisfying our desires present as primary focuses for most of us, in one way or another.

We might put actual effort and intention toward securing them and/or we might struggle every day as we make attempts to secure them. On rare occasions, we collapse under the pressure, physically or mentally. We each have a different set of circumstances for our lives and a unique way of balancing our ego/soul energies. These determine how we will navigate that which we are given, and how we will each ‘find our place in the world’, much like the Clampetts leaving home and hoping to find ‘purchase’ in Beverly Hills (see how I did that?).

Basic Needs, as a Concept, seems simple, right? Food, Water, and Shelter. Personally, each of us has a unique mental picture of what ‘food, water and shelter’ looks like for us and the concepts vary greatly, depending on circumstances. Especially when you are looking at what would be ‘livable’ in the long term. How would you imagine ‘basic needs in Beverly Hills’ in comparison to ‘basic needs in Malawi’? Our broader collective view is more obviously skewed, demonstrated by the simple fact that we have billionaires in the world and we still have places where people don’t have good access to clean water. I’m not saying it’s the billionaires’ fault, or that they ‘should have’ been somehow taking care of these essential humanitarian issues. I’m just commenting on the disparity itself as an indicator of how we view ourselves in relation to others.

Take a poll among your friends and family to see where their ‘bottom lines’ exist: It’s truly fascinating. Unless a thing has actually happened to us, we can only imagine what life must look like from that angle. Unless we have spent time lacking food, water or shelter, we don’t have a body memory to associate with the feelings our minds have conjured, rendering our idea of the experience ‘one-note’. It simply can’t stir us because our privilege puts us too far from where those triggers exist. We are ‘blind’ to the feelings that are stimulated by the deep triggers of others, yet we often sit in judgment of them without any attempt to understand how they got there in the first place. That sort of allowing usually takes some practice.

Often, looking from a different angle will change our opinion, but we are unwilling to go very deeply into that type of ‘matter’ because changing our opinion invites the eventuality of shifting or reworking something in our lives. Focused on the future and our personal goals, we can each ‘justify’ how our own hard work and the circumstances of our lives have brought us the things we ‘deserve’. In our more quiet moments, questions arise from within about the ‘truth’ of our value and we make choices with each thought about whether our next steps will feed our ego or our soul. We don’t usually think to call it that, but that’s exactly what we are doing every day: trying to establish a balance that will support the underlying structure of each, especially when they are at cross-purposes.

If we are clear within ourselves about our values and intentions, our choices will serve the greater good, acting as a behind-the-scenes resource for those in need. The way we collectively look at a thing, or direct our energies around it, has a strong impact on the result, especially when it is aligned with something soulful. The people around us bring different vibrations to the mix, establishing a ‘whole’ that is much more powerful than the sum of its parts. The Clampetts were each distinct personalities with separate passions, but as a family unit, they were rooted in a resonant respect for nature. In juxtaposition, Their Bank Contact, (Mr. Drysdale and Company) were so concerned about ‘what others might think’, they dismissed a large portion of society as ‘less civilized’ beings, pandering to the ‘popular egos' and forsaking the value of human beings who don’t ‘fit’. They couldn’t be bothered with the simple rhythms of nature.

Recognizing our own unique way of being, allowing and/or accepting it, and then taking those solid roots into the rest of the world is one of the most organic ways to ‘find our center’ no matter what may be happening around us. We feel ‘lucky’ when we find a person or group who accepts us for who we are–or at least what we are willing to reveal to them. The more we are able to reveal, the more deeply we feel connected at our core. When we are disappointed by the people we love, (in word, thought or deed), it is naturally human to retreat our spirit, and/or to fight for our dignity. Often, we do this without taking the full ‘root system’ of the other person into consideration, even though our own is front and center, justified.

Now it’s time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin.

They would like to thank you folks for kindly dropping in

You’re all invited back next week to this locality

to have a heaping helping of their hospitality

ORM that is. Meditate. Take your shoes off.

Ya’ll come back now, y'hear?