A rest on the road
The following article is targeted to the following people:
- You are a teenager struggling to get in the ‘in’ crowd. You feel there is something missing in you, or perhaps you are not saying the right things.
- You are very rich or beautiful or famous. People approach you all the time. You are rarely alone. Lately you feel either one of the following ways:
- People don’t respect you. That is, they only respect your money, or beauty, or fame, but that is not who you are. No one will care about you if you lose this magnetic characteristic.
- Conversely, you feel you are very deserving of attention because of your status. You’ve worked hard and being rich, or beautiful or famous is absolutely the defining attribute of who you are. If you lose it, you will be less worthy of attention, but you’ll worry about that later. But it does bother you to think about it.
- You are poor. You live miserably and there is little reason to believe there is any way out. You feel one of the following:
- You feel your life is a failure. You feel people look down on you because you are disadvantaged.
- Life is not fair. You deserve much better than this. You worked hard and gave much beyond what others did. The man owes you.
- You live in moderation, but with a sense of longing. You deserve better, or you feel life would be so much more fulfilling if you had accomplished more.
Exercise
Set aside an evening. Relax and take all the time you need to take a slow bath or shower. Prepare yourself in your favorite clothes. Make a ritual of it, as if you will be meeting a huge crowd to receive an award for the work you have done, and that everyone loves and adores you. It is irrelevant for the purposes of the exercise whether you invite your friends and acquaintances, or whether you are at home or at a party or a restaurant. Make the arrangements according to your personal preference.
During the course of the evening, repeat the following statements to yourself three times, preferably with a small smile on your face and a devilish glint in your eye:
- The Queen of England, a little baby in a crib, the richest person in the world, the most famous movie star, the murderer in prison, the homeless person in the park, my boss, my employee, and ME all have a common human condition in life. Our worth is unassailable:
- There is nothing we can do to take it away. No matter how badly others treat me, I have the same worth. No matter how little I do or accomplish in life, I have the same worth.
- There is nothing we can do to increase it. No matter how well others treat me or how reverential they are, I have the same worth. No matter how great my accomplishments are, I have the same worth.
- None of us has more worth than any other.
- None of us has any less.
- My worth as a human being is established as an innate and blessed consequence of being born. The concept of affecting it through thought or deed is nonsense.
- Regardless of my strengths, weaknesses or imperfections, I am deserving of my own self-respect and love. No one can take it away except me.
References
Photo courtesy of Powerhouse Museum Collection on Flickr
