I am still reading the book about passivity. I am struggling to find the right words to describe it. This morning I came by a poem by Bill Stafford that hits on this issue of passivity. In particular the idea that we become attached to certain emotional responses to life that we experienced as a child. These responses may not serve us and they may hide the truth and power that resides within us, yet we remain attached to these responses.

Turn Over Your Hand
Those lines on your hand, they can be read
for a hidden part of your life that only
those links can say – nobody’s voice can
find so tiny a message as comes
across your hand. Forbidden to complain,
you have tried to be like somebody else,
and only this fine record you examine
sometimes like this can remember where
you were going before that long
silent evasion that your life became.

If you are forbidden to complain then how are those feelings going to come out?
“silent evasion” – that sure rings true. I’ll just keep my mouth shut and move along.

Posted by Ethan