Understanding nuggets of wisdom
An elder attempted to tell me something valuable once. He observed me doing my work in a context that appeared to be at variance with the path many of my contemporaries would have chosen. Perhaps because of his wisdom, he didn’t aim to guide me in making other choices.
According to this elder, a time would come when I would see the world in a different way. He spoke of something like gossamer being removed from my eyes. His comments came across to me as cryptic when they were expressed.
Perhaps there isn’t any substitute for working through one’s own process. One can be responsive to external influences, but we are all driven by unconscious urges, to an extent.
Now, I wonder if the removed layer of aforementioned gossamer was a way of describing consciousness. I heard the term “conscious” used a lot in some politicised circles, as a young person, but it seemed like a cliché at that point in time. The people who used that sort of terminology seemed to be looking for fellow humans who would adhere to a neatly packaged worldview.
Describing the feeling of making the journey towards one’s authentic self is not easy. Suffice to say, I have a clearer understanding of what the elder was talking about, many years after the event.
