And so I had a night visitor - an old friend from the old days. He was seeking council - advice on going freelancing. However, I sense that he also wanted me to tell him what to do, and I am not in the business of running anyone's life, except for a ridiculous amount of money. Though I did say the price for listening is that I get to write a blog about our encounter since I am approached many times over by similar friends facing similar difficulties.
And no, this is not me talking about a friend when I'm really talking about myself. This is me demonstrating how smart I am, at the expense of other people.
I told him his life is his own, and that he is responsible for it and himself. There is no one else who can take responsibility for that.
He whined about his work making him unhappy and I told him that nothing and no one makes us feel anything. It is, in the end, ourselves that create the feelings and situations.
I told him to stop being a victim. We all have more power than we realise. Things happen because individuals went ahead and did them. I longed for a system that could eliminate the human factor, but - perhaps for my benefit as well as every human being - that system does not exist.
Corporations and countries work because of the effort of the individual, doing tasks. The overall result is simply a culmination of all tasks and each result.
Therefore, the individual is key, in current systems. Any one part dropping the ball means that every part - the whole sum - is incomplete.
I told my friend, cruelly, to grow up. And to stop being a victim. And to distrust emotions, as emotions are simply an energy source that can consume you.
Assert reality, I told him.
As he left, though, I wondered whether his visit was for his sake, or was it for my benefit, as I review the lessons of old.
Assert reality!
