The Flower that Breaks Through the Tar of Modern Society
What is it that really stops human potential?
The contrast of beauty to barren black tackiness seems like an inspiring epic.
To see something break through the unbreakable, and bare color and obvious delicacy, paints a picture of fantastic resilience and unmatchable perseverance.
Yet the focus shouldn’t be on the flower but on the tar.
Inspiration isn’t how we see people at their climax but what we see them push through.
But…
Does human potential have to seem so rare? So unreachable? So elite?
…
I’m not saying that human potential is rare.
I’m saying that the rarity we see in human potential is arguably unfair to ourselves and untrue.
The way we see the world can highly influence our trajectory and potential.
…
If we were to think of ourselves as an endless potential then we have to understand that endless potential needs something to make it grow. It needs the nutrient richness and airy consistency of soil that breeds growth.
That soil, which is things like love, connection, opportunity, collaboration, relatability, laughter, stability, and devotion are the things we truly need to make us what we are.
Things that we get from family and friends, community, relationships, passion, freedom of choice, and confidence to be ourselves among millions.
Not just flowers, but a singular type of flower among thousands.
The lie is that the soil we need is finite and only within the grasp of the lucky or elite.
Think of the tar itself as the thing that suppresses and clogs potential: isolation, stress, comparison, financial poverty, sensitivity, division, and volatility.
Things that are put in place by unrelenting currency inflation, corrupt government, wrongful conviction, censorship, greed, and the promotion of hollow success and wealth.
The soil is what we need and the tar is what we’ve gotten.
And it’s this story of seeing a rare flower burst through the density of infertile, suffocating road mix that we glorify.
But we have the wrong focus and the wrong idea of success.
…
Growth already takes time and effort.
But to think of human potential as so scarce and so god-like destroys the belief in individual possibility and diverse application.
What if we created real soil for growth?
What if it was far more abundant and fathomable?
Wouldn’t the image of a meadow of infinite diversity far exceed the image of a rare singularity poking out beyond the blackness?
Wouldn’t a vast space of buttercups, lilies, daisies, roses, carnations, orchids, tulips and thousands of others be more awe-inspiring than a single rose?
…
What seems to have happened, from my perspective at least…
Is a world built of industry.
A track that intensified and expedited human potential but sacrificed a lot of core values and human uniqueness.
A pursuit where we built too quickly, ignored what we sacrificed and what created toxicity, hastened and objectified too deeply, and stole away human presence and spirituality.
All for the sake of what shortcuts to sex and power and wealth.
And worse than the single rose is the fact that it’s the hardened and adapted weeds that break through the tar more often.
A mutation made by scarce resources and an elitist mentality.
Left to spread the seeds that kill the more beautiful creations around it, taking over the barrenness.
…
I’m not saying the world should be easier.
The current version of myself has only become more resilient and of more conviction because of the hardships. Not just of the world around me, but my mind.
But the danger of unnecessary barriers, the ones built that we all know are corrupt and unjust and suppressive, creates a hardened nature.
And with a hardened nature, just like anything else, manifests the potential of both illumination and shadows.
Tall barriers not only create strength and ability but bitterness, indifference, and an “at any cost” mentality.
What most of us don’t see is that the same humans who want expansive and fulfilling lives may very well take their power and ability to dissolve their peers rather than hold them up, and spread the tar even further.
That’s human nature.
That’s the ratio of light and dark that most want to deny exists.
No matter if this world is fair or if you prefer the “soil or tar” comparison, we have to understand that it’s impossible to be pure, only light, only good.
But we can mitigate the darkness of ourselves and society when we create a more fruitful and possible space for all of us to grow.
…
How do you see the world?
Human potential?
How do you think we maximize human potential?
Truth and Love, Reader.
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