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Sandra Seitamaa - Unsplash

Entitlement

Audio Version (music by Oleksii Kaplunskyi)

Entitlement is an intriguing, pervasive, and debilitating concept that is passed down and passed around these days. Large segments of our society have devolved into childish, narcissistic, populist, morally relativistic, gossipy, and infantilized dramatists. It benefits only woke mobs, cancel culture, public relations firms, and ideologues.

The concept of entitlement is based on and coupled with the I, me, mine mindset. It takes shape at the forefront of our interactions and relationships, in our vocations and careers. As a result, most of our decisions are made in a defensive, powerless state rather than an informed, patient, grounded, heart-connected awareness. It is how we deal with spiritual emptiness and meaninglessness.

Those of us in our thirties or forties have a “work hard and you’ll succeed” program in the mix, inherited from parents who grew up in an era when they could either educate themselves and earn a title and a higher wage, or take a job, train on the job, and stay there for the next thirty to forty years, thereby also earning a title.

That type of success has far-reaching consequences. You work hard, and you sacrifice, so you deserve a car, a house, the ability to travel, and the respect of your spouse, children, and community. Alternatively, you have a nicely framed certificate, so you deserve a nicer car, a nicer house, a spouse and a lover on the side, children who wear the latest trends and are blessed with implants, ultra-white teeth, or other artificial enhancements, and the community can admire you from outside the locked gate.

As a result, we stand on the verge of becoming either victims or martyrs. Our lives are built on the unchanging worldviews of those around us who share our values and assign predictable meaning to the same things. This inescapably defines competitive distortions and lies, as well as enduring ideas of inadequacy, leaving us rushing to go nowhere.

Sasha Freemind – Unsplash

Expectations alone prevent us from living a fulfilling life. That’s essentially living outside of time (as if there’s never enough of it) or out of the present moment, bouncing between past hurts, obstacles, or hindrances, or desperation about the future. The more we color our world with the filters of control, persuasion, manipulation, pressure, and force, the more it reflects the very same back toward us. We can feel it in our bodies, bones, muscles, and minds, which are constantly tense, aching, clenched, weary, and worn.

Fortunately, we are more, and we greater than we presume ourselves to be.

The hard work, as it were, is only to recognize the power of submission and surrender. If anything, deserving is a given. Meaning is found not in materials or transient constructs, but in experiences, moments of discovery, challenges, a passionate embrace, the orgasm of curious delight, heartbreak, what if, what else, and why not.

If we are brave enough, we are certainly entitled to the full, terrifying richness of diving deep, tapping into the knowing, and engaging in absolute trust, truth, authenticity, and raw vulnerability.

Nothing can prepare you for this journey. That’s the purpose of this place! It’s about growth, novelty, variety, and exploration in every breath. There are no ordinary moments.

You, like everyone else, are entitled to your originality and uniqueness, as well as the realization of untapped potential.

Love your life.

Another Way” from the Fleshwound album