Nobody likes to admit they lie. They don’t want to admit it to themselves much less to others. Nobody likes to admit it because they are thinking about big lies, or even white lies. But I am more interested in unconscious and subconscious lying. Lying done without really even thinking about it.
For example. You might say ‘I hate turning 40.’ or ‘ugh, it’s raining today’ to a friend. But are you just automatically saying what is expected at that moment? Are you really bummed that it is raining or you are 40 or are you parroting what you think is expected? Are those lies?
I would say they are. You aren’t paying attention to what YOU really believe, but instead are just saying some automatic response that is, when you get right down to it, a lie.
How do we get pleasure from those lies? What do they feed in us?
“Lies are essential to humanity. They are perhaps as important as the pursuit of pleasure and moreover are dictated by that pursuit.” – Marcel Proust, 1871-1922, French essayist and novelist
It’s travel week on the Napkin Dad Daily. Ideas stimulated by my vacation last week.
The hardest thing to do is to escape oneself. The construction of self takes many years, decades. And when you travel it isn’t much different than putting your home on a trailer and moving . You may go to a new location but everything follows you. How do you leave your world behind and reconstruct your self, even if just a bit, when you go away from home?
One way is to bring very little. Expect to buy things where you go. Maybe not expensive stuff, but shampoo, accessories, certain clothing items, etc. Don’t bring all the things you need to make yourself as you always are. Go au natural with things, see what you discover about yourself and the new place you go.
I remember going to Europe in 2003 with my daughters and one of the most fun and informative things was going into grocery stores to buy food for picnics and snacks, and other needed stuff. The hair product company, Garnier, was everywhere and I thought the design and packaging was very interesting. Lo and behold, a few years later they come to the USA and I see them marketing to Americans.
Travel and see with new eyes.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust, French Novelist, 1871-1922
“Illness is the most heeded of Doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey.” – Marcel Proust
This is in honor of my brother-in-law, Tom, who had a ruptured appendix on the ski slopes of Colorado yesterday. He couldn’t make it down the hill on his own after a fall, the pain being too severe at that point.
He spent two hours in surgery and they believe his is going to make a full recovery, but not before a big scare, lots of pain and a 5-7 day stay in the hospital.
This quote is true, but the further truth is that those promises to goodness and wisdom are often only made when we are in the middle of that severe pain we have to obey!
A big shout out to Bruce Hansen, undergoing chemo for cancer in Boston. His cancer is in his neck, which is in Boston along with the rest of him and his wife Heidi. If you know him, wish him well. If you don’t, wish someone else well.
Nobody likes to admit they lie. They don’t want to admit it to themselves much less to others. Nobody likes to admit it because they are thinking about big lies, or even white lies. But I am more interested in unconscious and subconscious lying. Lying done without really even thinking about it.
