{"id":272,"date":"2010-12-13T17:53:30","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T01:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/storyresolution.org\/?p=272"},"modified":"2010-12-17T19:38:24","modified_gmt":"2010-12-18T03:38:24","slug":"freedom-from-story-condemnation-part-2-stream-and-pond-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/freedom-from-story-condemnation-part-2-stream-and-pond-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom From Story Condemnation: Part 2, Stream and Pond Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As we passed the baton of conversation, Lee<\/a> pointed me to the metaphorical lines from The Silver Chair<\/em>, by C. S. Lewis. A thirsty little girl named Jill encounters the powerful and wise Lion, Aslan, as she approaches a stream for water:<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you thirsty?\u201d said the Lion.
\n\u201cI\u2019m dying of thirst,\u201d said Jill.
\n\u201cThen drink,\u201d said the Lion.
\n\u201cMay I-could I-would you mind going away while I do?\u201d said Jill.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl.\u00a0 And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWill you promise not to do anything to me, if I do come?\u201d said Jill.
\n\u201cI make no promise,\u201d said the Lion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you eat little girls?\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,\u201d said the Lion. It didn\u2019t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI daren\u2019t come and drink,\u201d said Jill.
\n\u201cThen you will die of thirst,\u201d said the Lion.
\n\u201cOh dear!\u201d said Jill, coming another step nearer.\u00a0 \u201cI suppose I must go and look for another stream then.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other stream,\u201d said the Lion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s reference to Jill at the stream demonstrates our attempts to negotiate among life<\/em> and death<\/em>, existence<\/em> and essence<\/em>, dilemmas born when we cling to security while begging for revival. Scared and confused, we first negotiate with nature, then with whoever offers sustenance, seeking a fictive risk-free path to new life. We\u2019re susceptible to delusion from within our vulnerable state.<\/p>\n

Our story of death and resurrection, our narrative of transformation,<\/em> is both the original inconvenient truth<\/em> and the<\/em> path to life\u2019s essence<\/em>. This mythical trope of transformation through death and resurrection was recognized long before its Christian associations, it\u2019s a longstory<\/em><\/a> more enduring than religion itself. Our transformation narrative<\/em> expresses an early recognized law of nature. It tells us that:<\/p>\n

\u201cPaths that nurture necessarily possess the capacity to destroy, that new life requires death, and that all paths to life and maturation hold the risks of unanticipated loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standing at the Stream of Transformation, we falsely convince ourselves that there must be a way to separate life from death, and essence from existence. When we do this we create two dilemmas disguised as choices, a choice between life and death<\/em>, and a choice between essence and existence<\/em>. Though, our only life giving choice is to enter the unknown in Aslan\u2019s Stream.<\/p>\n

My life<\/em> and death<\/em> dilemma is created at the Stream of Transformation<\/em>; cling greedily to my self-defining stories while desiring renewal. I become seduced into negotiation among illusions of opposites; comfort versus stimulation, safety versus adventure, life versus death. I create my dilemma when I see life <\/em>and death<\/em> as opposites, as separable qualities. My clinging creates an illusion of duality, like the particle-wave duality of physics. All matter is both particle<\/em> and wave<\/em>. Confusion arises when I forget their mutually supporting roles.<\/p>\n

Our other transformational dilemma, the dilemma of essence<\/em> and existence,<\/em> is different from our life<\/em> and death<\/em> dilemma. It comes when I confuse existence<\/em> as essence<\/em>. Jill can help us to understand our existence<\/em> and essence<\/em> dilemma with my extension to her quandary at the stream:<\/p>\n

\u201cHello little girl\u201d, says the Rich Man. \u201cI heard of your predicament. I happen to have a pond of my own, though the water is<\/em> a bit salty. Would you like some?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh that sounds good. Is it far from here?\u201d said Jill.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNot too far,\u201d said the Rich man. \u201cI\u2019ll take you there if you\u2019ll stay with me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean I can have all the water I want, even when I am thirsty again. And in exchange I must stay and keep you company at your pond, and give up wandering freely in the woods?\u201d said Jill.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d said the Rich Man \u201cWhat good is freedom to explore when you\u2019re dying of thirst?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh my, I see what you mean.\u201d said Jill \u201cThank you for the offer. Though now I\u2019m both scared and<\/em> confused!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jill is disoriented with her expanded opportunities. She faces life, death, and freedom at Aslan\u2019s stream, or she can choose safety and basic sustenance at the Rich Man\u2019s Salt Pond in exchange for some of her autonomy and freedom.<\/p>\n

Our Rich Man explicitly states our fundamental mortal concern: \u201cwhat good is essence,<\/em> if you<\/em> don\u2019t exist<\/em>?\u201d The argument confuses Jill with her desire for self preservation. Our fear of our mortality breeds our ego. We confuse all life and essence with our selves, with our individual life. We forget our interrelationship among all life. We forget life\u2019s need for renewal of essence, that life\u2019s renewal only comes when individuals choose stories of essence over stories of existence. \u00a0An ocean worthy ship, Jill is offered a lifelong safe haven in the harbor. But that\u2019s not why ships are built.<\/p>\n

Faustian bargains arise between essence and existence when we\u2019re offered sub-nutrifying substitutes for essence in exchanged for safer existence, or when we offer such substitutes to others. We often unwittingly do this when we offer contracts or laws as substitutes for relationships, gifts as substitutes for connection, compensation as a substitute for appreciation, and compromise as a substitute for resolution. The list goes on. All are offers for counterfeit stories, empty calorie substitutes that fail to satisfy deeper hungers of life. The dilemma of choosing among essence and existence stories, while facing awareness of our individual mortality, may be our challenge intimated in the story of the metaphorical fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, in the Garden of Eden.<\/p>\n

Most all of us begin our lives drinking stories from the Salt Pond. Born ignorant into the world, we\u2019re offered the safety of Salt Pond stories to meet our sustenance needs. When we have discerning moments to recognize that we can choose our stories either from the Stream of Transformation or from the Salt Pond, our guide is our Transformation Story. It tells us that: though Salt Pond stories can prolong individual lives, Stream stories are our only source for new life, and that only Stream stories contribute to life beyond our individual lives. Stream stories are life-creating longstories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we passed the baton of conversation, Lee pointed me to the metaphorical lines from The Silver Chair, by C. S. Lewis. A thirsty little girl named Jill encounters the powerful and wise Lion, Aslan, as she approaches a stream … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-longstories","category-our-stoired-lives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}