Something came to mind today regarding that notion. On msnbc the caption for Jeff Skilling on trial – the Enron Scandal, was “grilling Skilling.” Cute and we know how they love to use metaphors and word play but I intellectualized it. I thought to myself, what does that mean, why use a heat metaphor?
What it refers to of course is that everything private in his mind and in his life that has any relation to this scandal would be made public and be open for scrutiny by anyone and everyone for the most part.
What struck me was how Hell is often referred to as being fire, burning in hell etc. and how when we die, we no longer have a physical body to separate us from others, our inner most being is visible to all, hell to anyone not expecting it.
It occurred to me that the way to avoid this is to treat life in that same open way. Always aware of and coming to terms with those parts of us we don’t want to be seen, essentially just honesty, within and without.
I think that’s one advantage those of use who are LGBT who’ve learned to accept what society tells us we should not. Having learned that lesson, there is significantly less fear in dealing with many other parts of ourselves that we find “undesirable.”
But look at what some of us have gone through to get to this point of accepting and expressing ourselves, and still it is too much for some to 'come out.'
My point is that I agree. My observation is that for those who’ve grown up with the notion that this is a “fact of life” so to speak, and fit into society -heterosexual etc., There’s a separate challenge for them to stop hiding themselves. Look how much it takes for those of us whose need to be honest with ourselves and others in order to be happy. So many of us have a clear definition of what rock bottom means, we have experience with the fear it takes to go against social norm and risk rejection and are now less afraid of dealing with other aspects of our lives that may need change. How much more insidious is the difficulty for those to whom rock bottom is not an option because their lives have been so mainstream for so long. It’s like a catch 22, there’s no definitive recognizable hell for them to relate to because all their problems are technically ‘normal.’
One good thing about being a minority like us is that some of us have been able to break through that social conditioning and recognize the importance of the process of self reflection/introspection and how it relates to expressing ourselves with others. -Just a thought, not sure where to go with it from there..
Does anyone get that or is it too esoteric? I think I’m fading, maybe someone else can put it better...
