Inaugural Substack: Fair Warning to the Younger People, To the Children
"Follow Your Bliss" isn't optional unless you WANT to live in the Orwellian and Kafkaesque nightmare...
One day you’ll blink your eyes and you’ll be 57 y.o. – like me.
And unless you are so disposed, or are lucky to have had the right mentor (a wise elder, a wise teacher, a wise parent, a wise friend and confidant, etc.), you may not find yourself where (how) you want or wish to be in your life.
Here’s how to avoid that…
The incomparable and late Professor and Anthropologist, Joseph Campbell spoke of “following your bliss” and His wise words and counsel are not to be minimized or ignored. He was emphatic that you should undertake this road, this direction, at the soonest – lest the world’s and life’s distractions crowd-out the Soul’s ultimate yearning. Pretty soon, obligations and duty become paramount. So, take heed of this bit of advice while you’re still young – or at least young at heart (e.g. a late bloomer).
Our society is designed by forces that wish you to be “productive” within a very narrow interpretation of what “productive / production” means – a purely materialistic pursuit laced with societally programmed and reinforced “Hallmark Holiday” sentimentality and Agenda 21 / 2030 / ESG / PMC sponsored “virtue.” The Powers That Be (TPTB) want you to be thoroughly indoctrinated with certain ideas – especially those that would have you chase material wealth (money / consumerism) and have that endeavor serve as the primary barometer of your “success.”
Even more troubling is the idea that you should pursue wealth / money as a means of eventually being able to “do what you really want to do.” A sort of “put-off until later life strategy” – a “suspension” or postponement of your real life that’s like making a Faustian bargain - “just do this for a period of time – and eventually, you’ll be able to do that which you love.” (insert sinister cackle in the background here…) It’s a subterfuge and a tragedy that most fall-for. I did. The game is so cleverly rigged that most never “get there.” This isn’t to disrespect or dishonor those who were able to follow the societal norms and achieve relative success that works for them. Some are able to negotiate or strike the balance (bifurcate themselves) between pursuing a livelihood and finding their bliss. Many, Many Blessings Be Upon Them. This is for those in the midst of struggle – of not “fitting-in” – of not “finding their way.” Those who fail to appropriately negotiate modern (insane) life or otherwise “make it all / any of it work,” because to do so, to undergo this terrible bifurcation, would mean chronic and existentially painful dis-ease (and possibly disease). To many (most?), it would require a painful maladjustment especially for those who may feel utterly lost in modern, “normal” society. I could never reconcile my (corporate) livelihood and following my bliss – I simply failed at this. Often and repeatedly.
From a certain perspective, it can be theorized that most of the woes in our society – and our very own lives – stem from our being unfulfilled and out-of-touch with Great Mystery – out-of-touch with Sacredness and our own Sacredness. We are fooled into believing that we can order, control, and direct (and “lease, finance, or purchase”) our lives, if we just do so-and-so and such-and-such. If we just “follow the approved program.” If we just go to a good school, get a good career job, work hard, keep our head-down, keep our mouth shut, vote for the “right” candidates, buy a good house / succession of good houses, raise a good family, save for a good retirement, give to good charities, hope social security will be there as a good backstop, etc. etc. etc. It’s a trap. And it’s a cleverly designed trap – by TPTB that only seek to extract from you for their own material fortunes – and even more sinister - TPTB that wish to keep you subjugated and disconnected from the very Source of Who and What you truly are – as a means of (mis)shaping our very world and our very civilization.
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
One of the reasons it is best to “follow your bliss” while you’re still young – before you have accumulated numerous responsibilities (and materialist / consumerist distractions) – is so that you have plenty of time to actually discover what IT is! This is no small task or undertaking. Very few KNOW what their bliss is and have stumbled-around for some time – trying different things – having different experiences – before serendipitously finding their bliss. As Campbell wisely said, “with your body, you have to come to come into accord with the Mythic, with Great Mystery – and discover Sat Chit Ananada or Truth-Consciousness-Bliss.” He wisely spoke of using the experiences and sensations of your mind+body to discover and Serve your unique “The Good, The True, The Beautiful” (Plato’s Transcendentals). Learning how to do this can come naturally – but oftentimes requires wise counsel and guidance. This guidance will look very different for each and every one of us. Give yourself permission – and the time – to find the people / Teachers / lessons / experiences – to ultimately help you “find yourself” – to embody your unique vision – to experience your sublime Being (your bliss).
Our blatantly (dystopian) consumerist culture is incessantly creating disposable, throw-away commodities. This includes people. “Job security” is something of a bygone era now – while huge swaths of corporate-world employees are systematically laid-off or terminated (aka: churned) in service to a company’s bottom-line and shareholder (and stakeholder) benefit. In many industries, if you are 50 years of age and haven’t been able to ascend into the “ivory towers” of the executive ranks (the “C-Suite”), you will find yourself in a “disposable population.” Ever cheaper and younger employee cogs are on offer – dutifully produced for “the machine” – they will render you “obsolete.” The days of private pensions, company sponsored retirement, secure savings (e.g. 401Ks, investments, etc.), economic conditions favorable to reasonably accumulated wealth (e.g. the homeownership wealth ladder), etc. are gone. So, DO NOT fall for the trap of “just do this thing I must until I can do this thing I want.” Do NOT postpone your true, Sacred life in service to a clever societal diversion and construct – in service to a rapacious and indifferent machine – in service to a blatant lie.
I’ve been chasing money my whole life. First it was as a means of simple survival, then it became a road to enabling ever increasing “costs of living” – affording a certain “lifestyle” – which was really an insidiously and ubiquitously promoted “debt slavery lifestyle” – a woefully misguided notion that I would always make more-and-more money – that I would always be “worth” more and more in the material sense - that I would always have “financial security.” It is a fool’s errand that we are sold – and I bought it hook, line, and sinker.
I suppose my earliest version(s) of “following my bliss” always involved Nature – and my boyhood periods of solitude not only in Nature, but also in my fertile imagination – roaming the deep rural Mississippi countryside in the early seventies. That gave-way to wanting to be a pilot – to fly helicopters – and actually trying to accomplish that through the U.S. military (be selected to attend Warrant Officer Flight School) and failing - not due to lack of aptitude - but due to my lack of a college degree and a U.S. Senator backing my bid. Political savviness was not my strong suit at the time. Naiveté was a constant “companion” for many decades. Had I persevered – and had I received the appropriate counsel and encouragement – I probably could’ve realized that dream. It wasn’t meant to be. However, the common denominator remained; a strong sense of Divine Sovereignty, adventure, travel, and always feeling there was another experience to have – a distant horizon to move towards - more and different people to meet – and more stories to tell. Like Campbell, the study of other and ancient cultures – anthropological pursuits – grew in me – just as the various healing paths (e.g. Shadow Work) I undertook – exposed me to Teachers, peoples, and cultures more steeped in the Mythic and Great Mystery – more in Service to the Sacred – and the Sacred within me.
Now – all these years later – my “follow your bliss” looks a lot like Campbell’s own (brilliant) storytelling. Just like rogue journalists, adventurers, pirates(!), social commentators, writers, philosophers, etc. like the late Peter Gorman, Terence McKenna, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Baba Ram Dass, Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, Rumi, Hafiz, Carl Jung, Friedrich Nietzsche, etc. etc. etc. Mix in the aspects of study + research + travel + adventure + Nature + periods of solitude + D-O-Gs / G-O-Ds (!) + Prayer and I’m pretty close to my own “follow your bliss.” The problem for me now is to support such endeavors – and have such endeavors support me - because I’ve spent a lifetime chasing money - the corporate paycheck and survival in a slavery system instead of following my bliss. Doing “soul crushing” work for a paycheck and “allowing” that to come to “rule my life” and define me - and “squeeze-out” the “still, small voice within” – which was always my bliss calling to me – begging me to turn and move towards it. Now I’m trying to make up for lost time.
Don’t make my mistake.
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“The Power of Myth” - Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers - Full Series (6 Episodes) Available on Youtube (Essential!)