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Remember that time I said ‘If I hear one more Chirpy Do Gooder tell me to let my light shine, I think I might break something?’ Well, my feelings still haven’t changed and I need to tell you why.
When I first made that statement, it was in response to a woman who told me how tired she was from hearing New Agey types like me dole out directives like that without suggesting how to keep on shining. She already knew that letting her light shine—or daring to be her real self without asking anybody’s permission—sometimes meant letting her butt get kicked by life too. That probably explains why she wound up in my course in the first place; she wanted some support for those times it felt like all people wanted to do was put her lights out.
When a Chirpy Do-Gooding New Ager says, “Let your light shine,” here’s what it sounds like to me: Permit the blissful radiance of The Divine to surge outward through your primordial essence to illumine the darkness of this manifest world like a spiritual lightning bug flickering thither and yon and alighting joyously upon your midnight rose of quivering despair.
Please, hold the phone whilst I barf.
Here are my issues with Chirpy Do Gooders:
1.) Chirpy Do Gooders speak in flowery tones most of the time, and real people—people who give themselves access to their full range of emotion—don’t limit themselves to just one spot on the dial. That’s because as humans, every now and again, we lose it. We cry ugly, we get messy, we goof and struggle. And if Chirpy Do Gooders do, they don’t let on. And I don’t like that.
2.) Chirpy Do Gooders are so consumed with ‘healing’ and being chirpy that they’re useless. My aunt Cleo used to say religious zealots were so holy, high and mighty that they weren’t no earthly good. It’s hard to relate to them (see #1). How can we take people like that seriously. I mean, seriously?
3.) Chirpy Do Gooders don’t give us the whole story. People who only hand me the rosy part of the picture leave out the thorns, which are as much a part of the image as the rest. It’s a disservice to omit the fact that answering the inward call to shine and be oneself in the world is a carefree affair. It’s not. It often comes as an inconvenience and at great cost—a cost we can’t grasp until we’re in the thick of it.
Remember that phrase coined by the late American mythologist and writer, Joseph Campbell? He’s the guy who said, “Follow you bliss” if you wanted to live on purpose. But, wouldn’t you know it, Chirpy Do Gooders swooped in and disfigured its meaning. Campbell later grumbled, ‘I should have said, follow your blisters’ because it’s a huge mistake to overlook the sacrifice and hard work required.
We lost a lot of greats last year. Within the span of ten days, the world said goodbye to three luminaries who touched our lives in ways we may never fully comprehend. There was Wangari Maathai, whose fierce environmental and political activism earned her a Nobel Peace prize. There was Steve Jobs, whose innovative design and vision changed the way the world computes. There was Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, whose fearless pursuit of freedom and equality not only introduced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the world, but it also put the cause of civil rights at the forefront of American politics. Each of these pioneers let their light shine.
Despite the many odds against them—powerful opposition from the status quo, unthinkable political pressure, no proper offices from which to work, no benefits nor backup plans, personal failures made public, and in some cases, racism and persistent death threats—they followed the call of their convictions without buckling under the tremendous weight they carried.
These people gave themselves to the world by doing what stars are born to do: they shined. Because they were stars, their contributions live on, lighting the way for the rest of us. And that’s what the Chirpy Do Gooders don’t get: shining is a powerfully natural inclination, and it’s almost always an inconvenience.
Imagine for a moment that shining—daring to be your real self without asking anybody’s permission—could get you killed or jailed? What if shining put your family at risk and meant you rarely saw them? How would you handle the knowledge that your shining decisions meant the difference between whether or not hundreds of people got to eat on any given day?
Most of us won’t have to make choices as hard as all that but being stars, and doing what’s in us to do, means we’ll face challenges that require us to make decisions that are inconvenient. But just because things get hard doesn’t mean it’s not meant to be. Don’t even get me started on that one! What if any of the stars I just mentioned refused to shine because the way was tough or their muse went missing, or their check came late, or their marriage went bust, or somebody unliked them in Facebook?
I believe this relentless urge to shine is like the rumbling of solar flares and fire in the belly: it wants out! And not by way of acid reflux meds and garden-variety pills, distractions, excuses, and other forms of sabotage disguised as blather and jive. Letting your light shine means strapping in (or on!) for the ride and staying the course as long as you need to.
If you fire up and quit before you’ve finished, then so be it as long as you own it and move on. You wouldn’t be the first to bow out before the end, you know. If this stuff was easy, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. The thing is, if we do quit, we must do so consciously rather than acting like the fire’s not in us. It is. So, what can you do today to get your flame on, rock star? I’ve got a suggestion to get you started: Be inconvenient. It could save a life one day.
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