I have decided to expose myself in the New Year.
As a New Years Resolution for 2012 I have decided to risk exposing myself by asking dumb questions. I am particularly resolved to ask dumb questions of those subjects about which everyone else already knows the answer.
The many smart people who offer thoughts on this web site or in the Discussion Forum often intimidate me. What if others were to learn how shallow or stupid or uninformed I really am I believe this is why many people visit this site, read the insightful or probing commentary and then do the safe thing nothing! We keep quiet. We dont articulate the same dumb question that the last 150 readers also thought but failed to risk voicing. Thus it is we and our cyber-neighbors remain stuck on our interior journeys.
Yet, each of us interiorly, and the world externally, finally changes because of one very important dynamic: DUMB QUESTIONS!
Once upon a time someone asked a dumb question about Why do we need a King to rule over us Another asked, I wonder what we might find if we sail across this big ocean past the end of the earth Copernicus foolishly wondered, What if the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around John Kennedy dared to ask, What if we were to land a human being on the moon Rosa Parks chose to inquire as to Why do I have to give up my seat at the front of the bus A young nobody consumer recently asked the Bank of America, Why do we all have to pay an additional transaction fee And a bunch of campers around the Wall Streets of America are currently asking, Why does our country and the world need to be managed by greed Sometimes dumb questions change things.
For a long time in Western Civilization the subject of sex was taboo to openly acknowledge or publically discuss. Yes, everyone had a sex life. Yes, everyone thought about his or her personal sex life. Yes, everyone had sexual activities and practices. Yes, sex was vital to the health and survival of the species. But no one was talking about it.
Then in 1947, Alfred Kinsey asked a dumb question: What if we were to study and talk about what is happening in peoples sexual lives and their personal sexual practices The world has not been the same since.
Today we all participate in maintaining an even more pervasive taboo than the one previously exercised toward sex. There is nothing scarier, more intimidating, or more taboo today than the interior life. We dont really talk about it or publicly acknowledge that anything is going on. The interior life currently has the same taboo status as sex did prior to Kinsey. We are good at discussing the weather, the score of the recent game, our physical aches and pains, the latest gossip about all of our friends and family and even how we feel about these things. But, we often avoid going deeper personally or engaging the depth of another. We practice a life on the surface. I have been surprised by how many times I receive an e-mail notification that someone has contributed a thought or reflection on the Discussion Forum of this website only to login to the Thread and discover it has been deleted by the author. In erasing the comment the risk of exposure is gone as well as the opportunity for the author or another to grow from the reflection. Interior exposure is scary business.
This website and the Discussion Forum asks four Dumb Questions: What is Reality What is the Inner Journey How do I live in Flow How Do I Serve The intent of the Interior Mythos Journeys curriculum is to provoke an awareness of the interior life in the 21st Century as Alfred Kinsey did in relationship to sex in the 20th Century.
In 2012, a depth pioneer and contributor to this web site, Gene Marshall, is taking on a really BIG dumb question: What is Consciousness This question is foundational to the nurture, sustenance, and practice of an intentional interior life. Gene is writing the book, The Enigma of Consciousness throughout 2012. He is providing free downloads of the material as it develops at: https://www.RealisticLiving.org/PDF/Enigma/
An on-line group book discussion is now beginning on the Discussion Forum of this website (www.storywarrior.net) under General Discussion, The Enigma of Consciousness. Your contribution is invited and welcome.
Lets resolve to do something radical in 2012. Lets expose ourselves to one another! Lets publicly share some of the really dumb questions that occur to us as we encounter the material Gene is revealing. My guess is we might provoke a depth journey for one another by risking our personal reflections, experiences, and yes, dumb questions.
And lets be honest. Why did you read this blog Was it for the interior life quest or the sex
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