Battling Our Conditioning
Towards awakening and stepping away from toxic patterns.
Yesterday, I had a rather long and emotionally-charged (mostly on my end, it should be noted) discussion with my parents. (I can’t help but notice that I’ve chosen the rather connotationally-violent descriptor of “battle” [so manly!] to title this reflection). And part of me is ashamed to admit that I know that there were segments of the conversation wherein I behaved as if it were a battle. Shameful, but still had moments towards a more-conscious reflection on things within the discussion, while it was going.
I’ve realized that, perhaps my philosophical underpinnings with focus on argument pushed me towards “fighting” to persuade…rather than allowing the thrust of the conversation to lead us all towards future discourse.
I started the discussion talking about a quote from Robert Masters’ book, To Be A Man, where he writes:
[Sex] doesn’t promise a loving closeness but begins with a loving closeness, being an expression of an already-present connection rather than a means to connection.” — 201
I didn’t grow up with the sense that this is what sex between loving partners was, in fact, about. Not from the Christian upbringing wherein that subject was (felt?) more-or-less taboo. I never felt that the…
