The Freedom to be Ourselves

We live in a culture that romanticizes rugged individualism. We toss around phrases like suck it up and tough it out, and measure our worth by how self-reliant and wealthy we appear. As I write these words, I remember the cigarette ads in the magazines of my youth, tanned men in denim shirts smiling without joy in a desert landscape.

I see words like hustle, grind, and strive offered as affirmations for success, and maybe they work for you, but maybe they stop working when you realize you’re running toward a finish line that doesn’t exist, or that you’ve pushed so hard you no longer exist. We are trained to cross achievements off a task list; we drink a cocktail of individualism and commercialism that fuels our demonic obsession that someone somewhere might get something without suffering for it first.

In other words, this mindset destroys our empathy.

In a system that encourages us to look out only for ourselves, we learn to see others as a competition or a threat. We become violent, disconnected, and emotionally vacant.

Read the entire essay at Creative Living Diaires.