|
I was sipping a chai tea latte with a friend in a local coffee shop. During the course of our conversation, I made that very point. She said "It's not so simple, Laurence!" to which I replied "You hamstring yourself when you say it's not simple. With that constituted in your language, there's no chance it'll ever occur as simple for you" (to which she didn't respond directly ... but she did ask about "constituted in language").
That was how this conversation turned out with an adult. And the thing about having this conversation with young people however, is they haven't yet built up massive defensive barriers that deafen them to even that which would benefit them, especially if at first it may seem counter-intuitive. Transformation doesn't change the world (if anything, it makes the world more of the way the world already is). And we all want the world changed, yes? (it's Alan's taboo which keeps us locked into this predicament).
When I have this conversation with my children, I tell them their job is to have a great life. And there sometimes will be extreme circumstances which will surely get the better of them - and when there are, I suggest as soon as possible, they come back to distinguishing the bigness they really are. Then, before trying to change the circumstances, I suggest they invent new ways of accepting them. "But Daaad" they say (enthusiastically, now that they're really into this conversation) "what about north Korea?". "Well ... what about north Korea?" I ask. "Well ... what if north Korea sends an ICBM (InterContinental Ballistic Missile) with a nuclear warhead on it to Napa Valley, and drops it on Cowboy Cottage?" they ask wide-eyed (I love their idea in making a point, that north Korea would nuke Cowboy Cottage ...).