Some of us have something to say that is special, challenging or different. And many of us are keeping quiet. This may be why.
Of course we need to be kept quiet if the status quo is to be preserved. What will happen to the well established systems of control and shared beliefs if we go around saying that doing nothing is important, that only awareness is real or that improved life circumstances can’t make you happy?
Of course we need to be kept quiet if we want to invite people to question the established societal beliefs. to disregard the messages that tell us we need to suffer, work hard, sacrifice and mortgage the now in order to get ‘there.’ If we tell them that there is no ‘there,’ that there is only this, and this, and this, that this is what matters, then they might go and do something different. They might choose joy, freedom, love, right now.
And if we go around telling people that they can choose their thoughts and even their feelings, that how they feel doesn’t need to depend on circumstances, they might become more free than society wants them to be. What would happen if our world was full of people who knew they were free? Who wouldn’t do what they were told – not in terms of breaking the law , but what to wear, what to watch on TV, what to buy, what to believe? Too many empowered people would be a force to be reckoned with. So it’s a threat that must be avoided.
So they try to keep us quiet. And we are controlled in the easiest way – by fear. We are told that we won’t make enough money communicating our message (meaning that we will not be safe). We are told that people will laugh at us (we will be outcasts). We are told that we are being frivolous (not valuable). Of course we are rarely told these things in plain English, but subtly, through unwitting mouthpieces or by implication. No-one deliberately tries to put us down; in fact if anyone articulates these beliefs they usually have the best possible motives. To help, to protect, to warn. It’s no-one’s fault. We are all products of our tribal, patriarchal society, and we speak its ideas unknowingly, believing them to be truths. We just want everyone to be safe, to be protected, to have predictable, controlled lives.
But some of us are destined to endure the discomfort of living from these constraints while knowing that we have uncomfortable, challenging things to share. We may long to speak, write, paint, act, teach or create. We may spend decades of our lives succumbing to the pressures to keep quiet. But eventually we may find the urge to express our truth overcomes these shackles.
And then it will become even more uncomfortable, but the only way will be to go through it. It will be still more of a struggle if we are female. It is many hundreds of years since women commonly spoke up as individuals. But this is changing, one voice at a time. We must remember, we are not alone. Our voices count, and we are allowed. Men, women, people. When we see what is happening to our voices, we will set them free.
