Outward vs Inward
As always, I take a bus on the way to the place I work out of. Usually I stick on either a podcast of some sort or look deep into my Spotify playlists. Sometimes I pick out something recent (love Banks latest album, III by the way) or I think of something beyond my years and today I picked The Logical Song by Supertramp. I’ve heard this song a lot, but today I actually listened and the lyrics resonated with me on a deep level.
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh, it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well, they’d be singing so happily
Oh, joyfully, oh, playfully watching me
When I was young, I really did see the world as a place of wonder and amazement. It was always something new to experience and learn in great detail. I never thought of bills, food, things that were important in the long run. I was truly present in the moment and that alone.
But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, oh, responsible, practical
And then they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Oh, clinical, oh, intellectual, cynical
This reminded me how I struggled to adjust to school and while I understand some of the things have to be learnt (reading, writing and arithmetic) but outside of this, its very stale and by wrote. Everything I learned was something the outward appearance needed, rather than anything to truly enrich the inward that I was only getting more and more curious about.
There are times when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned?
I know it sounds absurd
But please, tell me who I am
This almost made me cry, because I realised I have done this a lot. Whether I really understood what the ‘inner self’ was or not but I had so many questions which remained unanswered for a long time. When I tried to dig deeper, it was often put aside or told something that wouldn’t solve the ache.
I could go on, but I see why it struck a note with me. We lean so much on outward appearances in so many places, when really we should lean on the inward ones to build a stable and strong foundation. Then we can learn the fundamentals and truly grow individually and collectively. It took me a while to really put the pieces together, but I’m hopeful I can do this for my clients going forward and help people find their inner selves so they can be a lot more grounded going forward.
Its simple, but its easy to forget in a world that seems dedicated to commodification and performative action, rather than vocational and passion led pursuit.
Until next time, don’t be taught what to do but learn all the time.
#embraceinfinity
