Now that you know, what will you do?

Image Credit: http://photos4.meetupstatic.com

Imagine a situation where you simply cannot "know" 

the world around you.

Plato's Allegory of the Man in the Cave is a hypothetical story of such a situation. To summarize the situation: a man is held captive in a cave with his hands tied such that he cannot turn around. He is facing the wall of a cave and a fire (source of light) is behind him in-between him and the activity of his captors. The captive can only see the shadows and distorted images of what is going on on the other side of the fire and has no knowledge what is going on outside of the cave.

Now, imagine that you are that captive but now you are allowed to turn around and leave the cave. How does that feel? At first you may experience relief. But what if that cave is all you know? What if you drew conclusions about life in the cave based off of the shadows that weren't in line with what really produced the shadows? Would you happily change your mind? Would you change your mind at all?

Now, imagine that you have an unknown world open to you (finally!) outside the cave. Do you burst out of the cave with zeal? You don't even know where the cave is in respect to the rest of the world... in respect to anything. Wow- that must feel overwhelming, daunting and perhaps scary. Maybe you even have a small voice in your mind entertaining the wish that you had remained bound and involuntarily "ignorant" of the world around you?

That is the dilemma about learning and maturing. Things that were once acceptable may no longer be acceptable for seemingly enigmatic  reasons. Is it your obligation to change? Is growing a natural process? Are excuses valid enough to turn away from such  revelation?  Is the unknown necessarily worse than the known?

Learning is a way of communicating with the universe-- something bigger than and outside of yourself. And yet, it pressures you to change or choose denial.What if you don't want anymore responsibility? What if what you learned makes life less fun and more serious? What then? 

I assume that the more change a lesson imposes on someone's life, the more resistant that person would be to changing-- to be in harmony with what we learned. What if this lesson is the foundation for future lessons? Can we go back years from now and in our own timing switch gears? 

Then ask yourself this: Do I want to become an enlightened version of myself? If you feel cognitive dissonance inside yourself, I urge you to take the personal leap to embrace the current lesson. Currently, I have the most confidence in the choices I would have never chosen ten years ago, or if it is uncharted territory.

How different are you from ten years ago? Please share in your comment below. 

Thank you for indulging my thoughts today. Many blessings to you~

#growingpains #transformation #lifelessons #maturingacrosstheages