Being Point

Tag: illness

  • “When You’ve Robbed A Man Of Everything, He’s Free Again” ~ Solzhenitsyn

    The intersection of power and adversity sometimes yields freedom. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote:

    “You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power – he’s free again.”

    This is a surprising paradox: that we humans become free when adversity has taken everything away and we have nothing left to lose.

    Life’s difficulties can have this kind of effect. For example, people report bursts of freedom and exuberant power when the adversity of illness has left them with very little time. Similarly, severe financial adversity often results in expanded power to appreciate life and the non-material world. Losing a job can transform into a feeling of liberation.

    Have you ever participated in or witnessed the kind of scenario that Solzhenitsyn describes? Can you think of life experiences where all was lost, yet there was freedom and power because adversity had wiped away everything? What is your relationship to this paradox? Is it familiar? How does it resonate with you?

  • Are The Consequences – The Results – Of Your Actions Consistent With Your Relationship To Time?

    Isn’t it funny how Time can sometimes feel as though it’s moving slowly or even almost standing still – or it can feel that it’s moving really fast? How a long time in years can feel as though it has passed in minutes?

    Time is in the perceptions of the beholder. Author Norman Cousins, who famously wrote Anatomy Of An Illness, said: “Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.”

    Are the consequences – the results – of your actions consistent with your relationship to Time? Do you feel the effects of your chosen variables in your life experience? What has happened to You that has you capable or incapable of feeling the effects of Time?

    What do you look forward to? How can you expand that?