At work today, I passed an unknown man in the hall, and as is often the case, glanced at his face with unease, wondering if he would glance at me, like me, give me a look of approval or disapproval as I walked by.
I caught a glimpse of the two of us in a glass door. I was a big man next to him, and the thought flashed through my mind, "He's probably afraid of *me*!" I smiled, and the approval I had covertly sought from him suddenly seemed very silly.
This man had no authority over me. He could not punish me for not fitting his perception of proper behavior or dress. His disapproval would mean no more than a barking dog chained to a tree - amusing at best, but ultimately irrelevant. I could even tease him (the dog or the man) and get him riled up - his response would have no relevance to my safety or well-being.
A dog, of course, thinks his opinion the most important in the world; and I, as a human, look down and smile at his naivete. His response comes from limited consciousness, irrelevant to the real world.
Is this not true of any of us who judge?
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Monday, November 7, 2005
The Vulnerability of Men
I'm back from the Mountain today - a profound and moving weekend with men. One of the things men find hardest to do - at least I do - is to become close and show affection for other men. Those barriers were broken down this weekend, and we held each other like brothers, able to look into each other's eyes and say how much we love each other. It is rare that I have done deep men's work in my life, but each time it has been profound.
On Saturday evening, three women were brought into our retreat, partially so that we could look at our response to the presence of women. One of our responses was to feel threatened. We had spent two days finding ourselves as men, finding our strength, our connection with the earth, our true desires, without women being an influence. Facing the prospect of these women being there, we felt afraid. One man said, women can cut us off at the knees. The moment we know a woman is watching, we lose who we are, and start wondering if we are pleasing them, if we are good enough, if we are acceptable, and suddenly we have to prove ourselves. Without women present, we knew we were okay the way we were.
This is a vulnerability in men that had escaped me, but was obvious the moment it was mentioned. There is both the desire to be approved by a woman, as well as the desire to be wanted by them, and both of those desires can cause us to compromise who we really are. The joint vulnerability we felt gave us a new resolve to be ourselves, whether or not women were looking. It took a bit, but soon we were dancing, knowing the women were watching, but also knowing we were perfectly okay just the way we were, and we didn't have to modify anything to please them.
I have a new feel today for what it means to be male - to be rooted in the earth, and to have the strength to know what I want, to state it clearly, and to go for it.
On Saturday evening, three women were brought into our retreat, partially so that we could look at our response to the presence of women. One of our responses was to feel threatened. We had spent two days finding ourselves as men, finding our strength, our connection with the earth, our true desires, without women being an influence. Facing the prospect of these women being there, we felt afraid. One man said, women can cut us off at the knees. The moment we know a woman is watching, we lose who we are, and start wondering if we are pleasing them, if we are good enough, if we are acceptable, and suddenly we have to prove ourselves. Without women present, we knew we were okay the way we were.
This is a vulnerability in men that had escaped me, but was obvious the moment it was mentioned. There is both the desire to be approved by a woman, as well as the desire to be wanted by them, and both of those desires can cause us to compromise who we really are. The joint vulnerability we felt gave us a new resolve to be ourselves, whether or not women were looking. It took a bit, but soon we were dancing, knowing the women were watching, but also knowing we were perfectly okay just the way we were, and we didn't have to modify anything to please them.
I have a new feel today for what it means to be male - to be rooted in the earth, and to have the strength to know what I want, to state it clearly, and to go for it.
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Friends
Tomorrow I take off for Shalom Mountain, a wonderful, magical place in the Catskill Mountains, where people grow, learn, heal, and find deep connections with each other. Ironically, I am going to the Wild Man retreat while still considering the offer of the Amazon native to live in his village in the jungle.
I feel extraordinarily blessed with friends. Shalom is a place I made many friends during my training there last year, and I am looking forward to seeing some of them again. And the community that has formed around the Sunday night gatherings warms my soul and feeds me. My life is rich with friends, lovers, support people, community. I think of how many people out there live lives very alone, maybe hoping for one person who will take away all their loneliness, and I feel lucky for the life I have found.
I often forget, and start to believe I am alone again, as was true for much of my life. At times like that, I withdraw and quickly fulfill my own prophesy. But today, at least, I remember, and I am grateful to every one of my friends for being in my life.
I feel extraordinarily blessed with friends. Shalom is a place I made many friends during my training there last year, and I am looking forward to seeing some of them again. And the community that has formed around the Sunday night gatherings warms my soul and feeds me. My life is rich with friends, lovers, support people, community. I think of how many people out there live lives very alone, maybe hoping for one person who will take away all their loneliness, and I feel lucky for the life I have found.
I often forget, and start to believe I am alone again, as was true for much of my life. At times like that, I withdraw and quickly fulfill my own prophesy. But today, at least, I remember, and I am grateful to every one of my friends for being in my life.
A Hole in my Head
I wake up, as I have so many mornings in the past, not knowing where I am, or who I am. I wake up lost. I look out the window, and try to remember, what was I doing yesterday? What did I decide my goals were? What is supposed to be important to me today? Why am I here?
I have the distinct impression that I knew the answers to these questions, probably just yesterday, but once again, this morning, they are gone, and I am alone.
There is a hole in my head. I go to look for answers where I know I put them, and I know they were there just yesterday; but when I look, there is nothing, just a hole - no information, no hint of what was there before - just emptiness, filling time and space.
I have actually come a long way. For years upon years, I did not remember that I had known the answers yesterday - I did not realize that I kept forgetting and relearning the same lessons over and over. Today, I remember enough to realize the daily disappearance, and once again, I am alone in a world without meaning.
Relationships feel distant. It feels like they mean nothing to me, as if I would not recognize a dear friend or lover if they walked into my bedroom - I would just smile politely, as I do with a stranger, and wonder what they wanted.
I know yesterday I had passions - things seemed terribly important, there were things to do, things that had to be stopped, or be fixed, or be pursued. Today, I can't remember what they were - some chores come to mind, but that sense of vital energy that makes life worth living - I can't quite remember what it felt like.
I can remember that I have loved. I can even remember the expression on my face as I wrap my arms around someone I care about. But I can't remember the feeling that would have led to that expression, nor what would have motivated me to care.
Long, long ago, I learned a hard lesson - my deep, craving need for love was inappropriate for the world I lived in - it was out of place, it had no means of fulfillment, like a porpoise on land, desiring water. There was no water in this life, nothing to bathe and sooth the dry parched surface of my soul. And when I couldn't have what I so deeply wanted, I disciplined myself to stop looking, to block out the longing, to not ask why. The discipline had to be constant, continuous, because the craving was continuous.
Occassionally, with increasing frequency, I do find deep connection in my life - moments when I know without a doubt that I love someone, moments when I feel I am fully open and giving, and I have found my purpose in life, moments when I am in the flow and I experience what it is like to be one with the universe. Those moments are often so poinent that I have to choke off some of the feeling - I fear I will lose myself and somehow not come back. I fear I would unleash all the refused grief of hardened years, all the denied longings of the unknown being within, and I would cry blood. Like a starving person from the desert, who has to readjust to taking in food again, I fear the abundance would kill me if I truly let it in.
And so my brain protects me, as it has for so long, faithfully erasing those dangerous memories of love from yesterday, so I can start again, fresh, clean, and alone, without reason to want more.
Ever so slowly, love is winning out. Each morning, I trust my suspicions a bit more, suspicions that I do have purpose, that I am loved, that the world is indeed my home. Suspicions that there is fulfillment to my longings, that my passions do have lovers waiting for them, that my feelings have a reason for being here other than torment. Ever so slowly, each day, I start to find my grounding, and memories return, and I once again walk among the living. The hole in my head is slowly closing and filling in.
If I do not remember you, my friend, it is not because I do not love you - it is because there is still a hole in my head, and each day, I must retrieve from it the things that make life worth living.
I have the distinct impression that I knew the answers to these questions, probably just yesterday, but once again, this morning, they are gone, and I am alone.
There is a hole in my head. I go to look for answers where I know I put them, and I know they were there just yesterday; but when I look, there is nothing, just a hole - no information, no hint of what was there before - just emptiness, filling time and space.
I have actually come a long way. For years upon years, I did not remember that I had known the answers yesterday - I did not realize that I kept forgetting and relearning the same lessons over and over. Today, I remember enough to realize the daily disappearance, and once again, I am alone in a world without meaning.
Relationships feel distant. It feels like they mean nothing to me, as if I would not recognize a dear friend or lover if they walked into my bedroom - I would just smile politely, as I do with a stranger, and wonder what they wanted.
I know yesterday I had passions - things seemed terribly important, there were things to do, things that had to be stopped, or be fixed, or be pursued. Today, I can't remember what they were - some chores come to mind, but that sense of vital energy that makes life worth living - I can't quite remember what it felt like.
I can remember that I have loved. I can even remember the expression on my face as I wrap my arms around someone I care about. But I can't remember the feeling that would have led to that expression, nor what would have motivated me to care.
Long, long ago, I learned a hard lesson - my deep, craving need for love was inappropriate for the world I lived in - it was out of place, it had no means of fulfillment, like a porpoise on land, desiring water. There was no water in this life, nothing to bathe and sooth the dry parched surface of my soul. And when I couldn't have what I so deeply wanted, I disciplined myself to stop looking, to block out the longing, to not ask why. The discipline had to be constant, continuous, because the craving was continuous.
Occassionally, with increasing frequency, I do find deep connection in my life - moments when I know without a doubt that I love someone, moments when I feel I am fully open and giving, and I have found my purpose in life, moments when I am in the flow and I experience what it is like to be one with the universe. Those moments are often so poinent that I have to choke off some of the feeling - I fear I will lose myself and somehow not come back. I fear I would unleash all the refused grief of hardened years, all the denied longings of the unknown being within, and I would cry blood. Like a starving person from the desert, who has to readjust to taking in food again, I fear the abundance would kill me if I truly let it in.
And so my brain protects me, as it has for so long, faithfully erasing those dangerous memories of love from yesterday, so I can start again, fresh, clean, and alone, without reason to want more.
Ever so slowly, love is winning out. Each morning, I trust my suspicions a bit more, suspicions that I do have purpose, that I am loved, that the world is indeed my home. Suspicions that there is fulfillment to my longings, that my passions do have lovers waiting for them, that my feelings have a reason for being here other than torment. Ever so slowly, each day, I start to find my grounding, and memories return, and I once again walk among the living. The hole in my head is slowly closing and filling in.
If I do not remember you, my friend, it is not because I do not love you - it is because there is still a hole in my head, and each day, I must retrieve from it the things that make life worth living.
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