I am indebted to Vik Maraj who inspired this conversation.
It's never over. It may be complete. But it's never over,
this conversation for transformation.
Human beings being what we are and the way we're thrown, this business
of transforming our Selves and living a transformed life, is never
over. And we're thrown that it'll be over. Soon.
Eventually. We'll just keep doing it until it ends, until it's over,
until it reaches its conclusion. That's our thrown-ness. And look: our
thrown-ness has a wider reach than just this conversation for
transformation: we're thrown that once we start anything,
there'll come a time when it'll be over. And we equate things being
over with them being complete. But they're not the
same (we collapse these two distinctions). So "It's complete" has come
to mean "It's over.".
Living life transformed may be one of the great exceptions to this
rule. It lays waste to this notion. When we tell the truth about it,
the business of living transformed has no end. It's never over. There's
always the next thing, there's always the next inquiry, there's always
the next
discovery
- and with them, there's the next degree of authenticity and truth to
bring forth - which in turn provokes further inquiry and further
discovery
... which actually accelerates its never-ending-ness (if
you will).
So what's the point of engaging in the conversation for transformation
if it's never-ending, if it's never over (and "it's never over" sounds
like it'll never resolve)? I mean why bother? We bother, because it's
the access to who we really are, and because we're thrown to bother. To
be interested in who we really are, indeed to be who we
really are, requires engaging in the conversation for transformation
because this is what works. And we are that what
works, is pragmatic. It's that simple.
We're structured so that
rigorous
inquiry,
discovery,
and
Self-expression
are the accesses to who we really are. To not be engaged
with them, is to not be alive. And to not be alive ie to merely exist,
to merely get by, is to never experience the inordinate part of
our lives, if not to never experience our lives in their entirety at
all.
As the old adage says, we can only move forward. There's no stopping.
To stop is to move backward, to give up all gains.
"It's much easier to ride the
horse in the direction he's going"
(quoting
Werner).
Yes you can stop riding the horse. Yes you can opt out of the
conversation for transformation altogether, "...
and what you get then, is
your old life back"
(also
Werner)
- because that's the way you are. It's the way you're structured. Check
it out. Tell the truth about what you observe (don't believe it just
because I'm saying so): opting out of the conversation for
transformation altogether, is to be resigned to a mere smidgen of
what's available in life.
So (the question is) if it's never over, then how can you say it's
complete,
Laurence?
- or (asked the other way) how can it be complete if it's never over?
When we're on the horns of a dilemma (so to speak), we
look to making the right choice. We're convinced there's
only one choice (ie only one of the two horns) which would
be the right one. Try this on for size: I've asserted we collapse
"complete" with "over". The resolution then is to take the road less
traveled: include both horns - like this: I'm complete
with that it's never over ie I notice the nature of the
conversation for transformation, is that it's never over. And I'm
complete with that it's that way.
Another example, this one from the macro view, works well: I can be
complete with
Life itself.
And clearly,
Life itself
is never over (it's not, is it?). That's the nature of the
beast. When I'm complete with something, I hold it exactly the way it
is, and exactly the way it isn't. And whether it's over or
not ... is actually entirely incidental.
