i’ll generally turn in the direction of a fight. i’ll steer into it, like when the car slips on ice. i was not always that way. it began long ago, though, deep within my clenched belly. where one day, there was no more room for fury. i’m not against fighting. fighting is necessary to life and to continued existence and to progress. but these days i like to check, before flying in, what it is i am fighting for. if i am chasing down justice, okay. if i am closing in on truth, this is worth my energy. but if i am defending my ego, or seeking to better present it, i hope i can think twice about that. nor do i want to fight to defend any particular idea. at least not as a thoughtless reaction. i prefer to sit back and think on all the different reactions to my interacting with my surroundings…and come up with what that means to me. i’m always playing it by ear!
the post on hitting children blew up and is being reblogged again and again; mostly agreed with, and fiercely disagreed with by a few. i do understand the emotion felt by those who disagree. our own views and experiences are dear to us, as is the wisdom they have provided. if it needs to be clarified (well, clearly it does): on this page, as always, i speak back to the world of the truths it has taught me personally. i am not a sociologist or scientist with any empirical truths. my use of the general “you” was a stylistic choice, and if it confused, i hope this clarification removes any doubt.
obviously, our stories do not need to battle each other. i think they speak from different rooms in the house. and i think the big blueprint has many secrets for all of us.
I appreciate the (necessary) clarification, and agree with you that there’s room for divergent experiences and the valid personalization of those experiences. My definitions of the corporal punishment I received as a child aren’t somebody else’s, and that’s fine, as long as nobody insists I should redefine the hard-won, hard-settled understandings of that history and my culture which I apply to myself and like-minded members of my cultural group.
I’m still concerned by your use of the principle of karma within your post, though. Karma is not a tally of negative actions that must be balanced in kind, and it’s certainly not a fated destiny or harvest that must be realized. And there’s in no way any bad karma incurred by being the target of physical punishment, even if you turn that pain inwards.
