I was thinking this afternoon about something the eminent Jungian psychotherapist Robert Johnson once said. He was describing a situation he was in, where he practiced great tolerance and patience. Not long after that he decided to reward himself for such a triumph and it backfired. He did something stupid, embarrassing himself and another person in the process.
He then referred back to the practice of two other friends, who, when they had achieved some triumph or “win” over themselves, would come home and one of them, who wasn’t involved in the “victory”, would tell the other to do something humbling. Take out the garbage, clean the bathroom, or something like that. He said the result was that in the act of humbling themselves they were cut down to size. Not his words, but my interpretation.
Why was I thinking about this? Because I had an example of this today. Having exercised great patience and tolerance, I did just such an exercise, but backwards. I helped clean up the kitchen and then took out the garbage. What went wrong? In the process of doing this, I had to do it despite some physical discomfort, which made me practice a bit of martyrdom. I laugh in writing this.
Immediately afterward I ran into a situation, where I deliberately walked out on a conversation, which though not directed at me, made it obvious that I was totally intolerant of the tenor of the conversation. Couldn’t be missed by those involved. Stupid to say the least. I could and should have handled it differently.
Makes me think about ego deflation in depth. Getting down to right size. How inflated a vision I can have of myself. Doesn’t take much thought to slip into this way of thinking. But it does take thought to stay out of my own way. Lack of humility is what it is.
Anyway, I’m am always subject to these kinds of errors. And just as I was writing this I got another chance to be of service and I hope this time I did it right.
Just thinking about being sober and how grateful I am to be living this way of life.