Have you ever read something that so encapsulated some part of yourself that you were literally dumbstruck in front of a rapidly cooling cup of coffee? I did at lunch today.
The funny thing is - it's not really good or bad, it just is.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Not everyone succeeds in occupations that society considers important to the degree that enables them to live a satisfactory mask-life. Many of those who fail in their youth to acquire a profession or trade that would offer them sufficient prestige to maintain their mask-lives claim that they are lazy and have neither the character nor the persistence to learn anything. They try their hand at one thing after another, switch from job to job, invariably considering themselves nonetheless fit for whatever may turn up next. This confidence in their own abilities gives them sufficient organic satisfaction to make each stab at something new worth the effort. These people may be no less gifted than other, maybe even more so, but they have acquired the habit of disregarding their organic needs until they can no longer find genuine interest in any activity. They may happen to stumble upon something at which they may last longer than usual and even attain a certain proficiency. But it will still be chance that has given them an occupation and thereby a foothold in society that will justify their own assessment of their worth. At the same time their precarious self-regard will drive them to seek success in other spheres, as likely as not in promiscuous sex. This promiscuity, which parallels their constant changing of jobs, is activated by the same mechanism of belief in some special gift of their own. It raises their value in their own eyes and, again, gives them at least partial organic satisfaction; enough, in any event, to make it worth their while to try again.
- Moshe Feldenkrais
preface to Awareness in Movement
If you've had a similar experience, please post the quote in my comments.
