A Dutch woman – a teacher of one language and a speaker of three others – said to me recently that it would be better not to know about the evils of the world. This was in response to my saying something in passing about the Islamic State.
We were sitting in a tropical garden under an intensely blue sky where it would have been easy to put all that behind us and focus only on the toucan grouching in the tallest tree we could see.
I thought for a long moment, and then it occurred to me to say, “No, it’s better to know. If we don’t know the totality of the human condition, how can we become better people?”
And, if we don’t face squarely all the truths of our humanity, how can we write honestly about who we are?
© Sandra Shaw Homer, 2015
Photo by Marten Jager
Excellent Sandy!! We ARE everything, the Yin and the Yang. We must look it square in the face to know ourSELVES and to realize our connection with everything in the universe. Look within…
Carl Jung wrote quite a bit about accepting and working with our Shadow. As Jungians say, “the brighter the light, the darker the shadow.” Spiritual leaders crash loudly and disgracefully to the bottom, political leaders’ private lives are food for horrendous scandals, etc., partly because people expect so much from them, and partly because their charismatic aura is so enhanced. We common folk are no different. Two excellent Jungian authors are Robert A. Johnson, who wrote *Owning Your Own Shadow* and Erich Neumann, who wrote *Depth Psychology and a New Ethic*. Bottom line: the more hidden from view our shadows are, the more they can control us!! They’ll pop up in so many clever ways before we can catch them. Families, communities, institutions, poltical and spiritual groups can also have collective shadows. Scandals and conflicts covered by the media partly reveal this shadow-popping. So acknowledgment of our shadows is crucial to our well-being.
Very good point, Katherine, and thanks for the references. Without an understanding of the Dark Side, how can we be free to choose?
Very nice, and Marten’s photo is amazing.