Sunday, August 26, 2007

Designer Guilt


Last week's show at blogtalkradio.com/jnetsworld people shared about pressing forward in life despite having breakdowns and taking on Life's lessons. Is the lack of a specific ingredient the cause of Inertia or Stagnancy in Life? Does Life get any easier EVER?

What moves mountains toward change? Curiousity, boredom, guilt, desire for more out of life ... are factors... But what is it exactly that projects ALL that?

The discussion lead to talking about Guilt, something that slows down progress... sometimes to a standstill.

What is Guilt? Does it come from an organization, a building, a special interest group? How did it get "fashionable" for some groups that there is now Jewish guilt, Catholic guilt, perfectionist's guilt, etc?

It's more than that Uh-Oh feeling. I'm talking about that lingering weight that hangs heavier than any gray cloud. I'm talking about that incessant voice that nags and belittles. It whispers. It screams.

How did that voice get in there? In our heads? Where did we find that voice?

Is it the voice of mom; spurning a statement of disappointment? Is it the voice of FATHER; an anvil of judgement? Is it the voice of the others that you've surpassed or survived; voices indignantly declaring that you SHOULDN'T have lived that accident or that you DIDN'T DESERVE that promotion?

Whatever GUILT is, some know its voice louder than others.

But is it fair to say it comes from mother, from father, from around us? Is it doing one any good this Jewish guilt, Catholic guilt, white guilt, survivor's guilt? There are SO MANY type of guilt that you can try on a new one every day and not go OUT OF STYLE.

But is it your fashion? How does guilt play in the designer's mind when you're working on making your life a work of art? Why paint depression or frustration into life?

If only you didn't go to church or have religious parents...
If only you didn't have such a sensitive consciousness to goodness...
If only you weren't so focused on wanting to do things perfectly and right....

WHY THEN it would be easy to not be racked with guilt.

Can life be any easier?

Perhaps...

Check out Designer Guilt on blogtalkradio.


JNET

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous9:45:00 PM

    So - I write in an email yesterday morning saying that I will write you last night. Well, as luck would have it, my browser decides that it is going to have a mind of its own. It decides to have .exe problems over and over and over. At this point I am feeling GUILTY.

    Anguished by this, I call my mother - and she lays on the CATHOLIC GUILT!

    "How could you? You PROMISED! Breaking your promises - well, That's a SIN - now make sure you go to confession!"

    Feeling VERY disturbed by this, I call my friend. He says - "Oy vay! - If only I could get help for you from my mother! She would tell you just how much of a schmuck you are! That Poor Girl. When are you going to call her? Are there children in the future - I want GRANDCHILDREN !!"

    ...and the nagging goes on. Further confused by my dismay - I decide that life is not worth living. In that process I have ONE clear feeling - that I need HELP.

    I courageously pick up the phone, and call my therapist. She tells me that this late nite call will cost me double - $500/hour - But what can she do to help me? I go on about my GUILT, and how I have promised to write to this 'girl - and she listens. She asks me to explain 'why I feel guilty' 'did my father/mother abuse me as a child' 'do I wet the bed at night?' 'am I under stress at work?' 'Do you have trouble sleeping?' Well, after an hour of this she concludes that I have REAL GUILT, she attributes it to a mild form of depression and anger regression, and a screwed up socio-phobic sense of inadequacies.

    She prescribes a heavy dose of REALITY and a mild anti-depressant. I rush immediately to the drug store, I buy the drugs, I immediately pop a pill! Life is Better! I go home, I try my browser one last time... It doesn't WORK AGAIN! More guilt settles in... I pop another pill...

    Please help me end this maddening cycle of GUILT! Please email me at my regular email! HELP ME! I don't want to have any more GUILT PILLS!

    Or was that all a dream? Maybe I should stop listening to TalkRadio Blogs late at night?

    GREAT JOB! Congratulations!

    Later...

    Jeremy:)

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