The Simplicity of Self-Authorship

As you may remember, part of the reason for this journal is that it acts as a vehicle for self-authorship. An opportunity for self investigation, to try and rise above, be less ego and group centered, and more community centered and open. To be more like water off a ducks back. 

I think what I’ve noticed is that the lines of simplicity of life and self authorship follow the same track. What I mean to say is that as self authorship goes up, complexity naturally goes down. I have a friend who when I met them seemed incredibly self-authored. I actually looked up to them for this. I was the squirrel who flashed after nuts or strange noises, they was the duck or actually the water off a duck’s back. But over time we switched. I became more duckish while they became a bigger squirrel than I ever had been. Now, the contrast, thanks to self-authorship, is even more stark. They are a mess in many different ways, and I am living with a greater and greater degree of simplicity. 

What does that mean? An example. . . .

I asked someone I work with to do something for me. I framed it both as a direct order and a personal favor to me. They went ahead and did the opposite of what I asked. For a brief moment I wondered what my boss would do to me if I had done to him what this person did to me. It would not have been a good meeting. Might have ended in firing. I considered that, but not really. 

How would going that route help me? Or that person? 

I realized the problem was really my own. I should never have made it a binary choice. I had done it to myself. Ultimately, it all didn’t matter, but I learned quickly, within that brief moment as I considered, I could get upset and fume and rail, or just accept what life threw at me with grace and a heart open to learning how to do a better job in the future. I picked option 2 much quicker in this instance than I ever had before. 

It more than any other time was a true moment of self-authorship. There was a choice between complexity and simplicity and the simple solution was much easier to accept ultimately, allowed for a learning opportunity for me, and in the end, because what could have gone wrong didn’t, none of it really mattered. 

I often think about that friend and the complexity that they allowed in their life, the way that they became a squirrel. I wonder now if they were never the duck I thought, but rather just a great actor. Someone who could pretend to live the life of a duck, but ultimately was the squirrel that they always tended to make fun of. 

I’ll say this, about this episode with this person at work. My “enlightenment” (such as it is), our relationship, and our future is far more positive because of my duckishness. A squirrel who might rail and scream and huff and puff or be insulted and upset without learning that they put themselves into that position through their actions would ultimately have a more difficult life. That line of simplicity would have gone up on the graph to become more complex. By adopting a self-authored approach the line continues to move toward simplicity and positivity. 

The squirrel is out there being squirrely and their life is more complex than it needs to be. I hope they come back around to being the duck they think they can be. It’s a much more easy and simple life as a duck than a squirrel.