#120: Trapped by history

History’s purpose is to get you where you are now, but depending on how you see it, history can hold you where you were.

Consider this: Elephant trainers don’t bother to tether their adult elephants to large stakes; they know that small stakes will do just as well. As babies, these elephants were tied to strong stakes from which they could not pull free; as adults they have stopped trying. It is not the stake that secures the powerful animal, but the power of its memory. The elephant does not realize this, and so remains trapped by history.

You are an accumulation of your stakes and tethers. You carry with you all that you once were: your experiences, education, memories, hurts, joys, hopes, and so on. The more this influences you, the weightier your history, and the more difficult it is for you to see nonsense.

Only once you realize that you have the power to pull out the stakes are you free to choose between sense and non-sense.


I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am