True Self

Sometimes we all need an outlet to vent , some use Twitter while others use Facebook and then there are those of us who use Blogging.
A friend and I been having these really interesting conversations on people which prompted my blog on “Ordinary People”. I have been nagging at him to start blogging but he is a little shy, so I offered my blog for him to do his debut…. The following is his blog please feel free to leave any comments…

True Self

In childhood, an older friend of mine once introduced me to the works of Ursula K Le Guin, a fantasy and sci-fi author. Through the years, I’ve seen real world analogues between the situations and characters in her work and those of real life.

The analog that I’ve seen most recently is to the short story, “The Rule Of Names”. | http://amzn.to/13pREoz

In the fictional world of magic and dragons that it is set in, all objects have two names. There is the True Name and the Common use name, which is exactly as it sounds. The True Name holds power over an objects identity and is only to be shared with a trusted person. Knowledge of an object’s True Name forces the object to reveal its True Self.

In the story, the wizard Mr Underhill serves the people of an island. Many years pass until a stranger comes along and calls out the wizard to be the dragon with the True Name “Yevaud”. Once the dragon’s disguise is exposed, there is no reason for him to pretend to be a soft avuncular old man any longer and he lays waste to the island, eating up villagers that he once befriended.

Some people in the real world are just dragons in disguise.

They create a false external identity and charm you, causing you to trust them and allow them into your life. They will share their lives with you, but soon you notice that its less than reciprocal. They seem to need you when they’re in trouble, but wont be there when you need a helping hand. Their successes are magnified, and yours dont bear notice.

If the person drops their defences and shares a secret shame or weakness, consider this the beginning of the end of your interaction. They have just shown you the route to their True Self, the path of thorns that they must cross every day. Now that you know their True Name, they become suspicious and paranoid, waiting for you to expose them to the world. Driven by emotional projection, they expect you to do unto them, as they would do unto others. They will seize any opportunity to drive you away. They have a penchant for inventing falsehoods, and deliberately misconstruing things that are not there in your words and actions. In short, the Devil starts interpreting scripture. Playing the blameless victim and painting you as an aggressor is typical at this stage.

Because they have a conflicted identity between their outer False self, and secretive True Self, they easily create a cognitive dissonance where they rationalise their behaviours, and selectively disburse what passes for emotions. They are quite happy to pick out faults in others, but a little bit of introspection will leave them paralysed with fear.

While this is happening, you begin to analyse the behaviour. Like most normal people do, you start with yourself and search for the trigger event. Save yourself the trouble. Your only mistake was helping someone who needed help, and like the old story about the scorpion and the swan, it bit you in the ass because it had a limited behavioural range.

Dragons need professional help. Don’t expect them to come to you for forgiveness, trying to raise the dead. Unless you’re a trained psychiatrist, you are not capable of playing Jesus, to the lepers in their head.

Dust your feet, leave with the lesson, and move along.

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