I had a friend who appears like a Jiminy Cricket character—but played by Betty Davis or perhaps Elvira.
Why did I need to keep him around? He’s supposed to be cheerful….is he really cheerful?
No, Jiminy Cricket, underneath the peppy exterior, is definitely sad. And controlling. This character put me down at every turn. What I discovered in this short but dramatic chapter, if I accept what is unacceptable in a “friendly” situation, what happens when the chips are down?
What about when I am confronted with this tail-between-my-legs— …in my art? If I am bowing to authority by proxy (even in a friendship where you should be able to allow your friend be the boss)— once you begin this practice of bowing and scraping, it quickly becomes a habit. It becomes a secondary response to any sort of person taking charge in any situation.
Every bully in the neighborhood knows to target you. I feel this is a problem on every strata—from the top where we see power being enforced without question, without pause, and mostly without a pushback. We witness this trend on the national scale, down to the smallest cooperative ventures. If you allow the bully to take charge, it is only a question of time before ordinary people are sacrificed and cowed by the power hungry.
For those who crave power and authority, It matters not what is good for the most of us. We can ask ourselves, What is my purpose? My soul's purpose? But the bullies’ care centers around personal advantage.
If I am to learn something in my evolutionary soul, it’s about how to screw up and go on. How to let things break and repair them, or leave them behind. Learn to love the broken things that get fixed. That everything is leading me to this moment and this moment is everything.
For all that matters, I don’t need a cricket on my hearth reminding me just how low I can go…
Power, control, money… ordinary people have been sacrificed throughout time under those with control. Nothing new - but those being sacrificed have dramatically increased recently. Destabilization and provocation is the name of their game.