It occurred to me tonight that the dilemma of the corporate environment - being true to one's self vs. being complicit and rewarded - is simply a micro version of the same societal macro dilemma.
A few weeks ago I was leading a group of 14 year olds in a conversation about what they wanted, what their dream life might look like. One young woman cut right to the core of existential angst when she confessed to the group that she just wanted to be pretty so people would like her. And there it is. We just want to be loved.
But society doles out its rewards just like corporations do and few people get rewarded for being their true selves.
You know, people give a lot of lip service to admiring people like Mother Teresa, but look at who our society rewards. The social workers and school teachers can't earn enough money to buy a home while egomaniacal liars and thieves are promoted to be CEOs of the most powerful institutions in the world. Nope, our society's values are no values at all.
And yet we take on false personas, we become people of the lie, so that society will reward us, so that people will like us, so that we might be loved, because we don't love ourselves, because we believe we are unworthy and unlovable.
What does a person look like who completely accepts and loves his/herself? Are they the ones on the extraordinarily narrow road?
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