I’ve been dancing around this essay for months. It isn’t about any one person, group, or event. It’s about years of study. Years of teaching. Years of joining and leaving. This essay is about some of the necessary building blocks that make up adult humans.
This essay is about not drinking the Kool-Aid™.*
We all need to learn.
Every human needs an outside force to challenge us, to come at us sideways, to cause us discomfort, to offer us hope.
But we need to not sell our souls to do so. We need to not give over our autonomy or sense of choice.
We need to practice discernment.
We need to remember we have value, all on our own.
No one person, group, or method, has all the answers. Not even us.
Groups can help us. Teachers can help us. New experiences can help us.
We often need training wheels. Systems to guide or support us as we learn. We may need to follow some pretty strict guidelines for awhile, in order to get the benefit from whatever the method we’re trying is.
But no person or group has the right to crush our sense of self.
Don’t give yourself away. Ever.
Whether it is asked for or not. Don’t do it. [Read more…] about Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid