Cornerstones and Fulcrums

Reblogged from "The Vampire Diet"...continuing from Friday



In Friday’s post, we talked about ideas being the cornerstone of change.


The cornerstone I was thinking about for today is personal responsibility. It is nearly impossible to act differently unless you have some vague idea that something else is possible. On the other hand, ideas are motionless unless and until you act upon them. If you have an idea or a bit of knowledge, but do not change what you actually do, then ideas alone can’t be an agent of change. If ideas influence how you do things or how you make choices, then they are essential to change. They might attract other things that prompt change, they might set lessons in motion just by being ignored, but in the short term, ideas alone need a little help from our spine to made real.


One cornerstone does not make a building.  Just like a rock can’t make a lever without a stick. 


After thinking about it a little more, A lever would be a better mental-example than ‘cornerstones’ in this case. It was a start...ideas are so basic, so foundational, so needed to build something new. Ideas are the turning point, but more is needed.


Think about levers. We all learned about them in elementary school science. Or at least played on seesaws at recess. 


Ideas are the fulcrum...the turning point around which change begins. Personal responsibility a is the stick that gets stuff done, that makes the change actually happen. 


No matter what diet books we read, or what regulations are enacted, or what resources we have at our disposal, who is that picks up the fork or picks up the cup? Who is it that opens our mouths and who swallows? The same person who can change all of that. We are the ones who got ourselves overweight, and we are the only ones who can get as fit and healthy as possible. Knowing what to do is of marginal value until we take the responsibility for ourselves and do it. 


That is the concept that I was trying to crowbar into words last week when the perfect, elegant, simple expression of it fell into my inbox. That is where the Richard Bach quote comes in.

“It isn’t up to my parents to change my past . . . even if they want to change it, that’s not in their power. It is, though, in my power. I can let the past go! If it’s never our fault, we can’t take responsibility for it. If we can’t take responsibility for it, we’ll always be its victim.”

Richard Bach

The quote, I’m proud to say, is used with permission.


It isn’t in the power of books or support groups to change our past...or our future. It is in our power to let our past go, to take responsibility for our mis-judgements and do things differently. We may have eaten poorly, been sedentary and hand a hand in our own ill health. But we can let that past go. If we continue as we are, then we that past is in vain. If we change, then we instantly transform that past from a mistake into a life-giving lesson. If we take responsibility for both what we did and what we will do, then we are free in the here and now as well.


Have you ever seen a whining, victimized vampire? If that is part of the mythos, it is in a comedy or parody. Even in camp and satire show vampires as powerful, in control, and self-responsible. They own their atrocities, whether they regret them or not. In choosing to be healthier, we are letting go of the past and leveraging ourselves into a new and better direction.


I feel lighter already just thinking about it.

Cornerstones

Holey smokin' guacamole!

I feel like a kid who just got Superman's autograph. Or, if you are our neighbor Jane, a six year old that just met Batgirl.

Remember the other day when we were talking about soda regulations in "Since When Did Dracula Have a Nanny?" from "The Vampire Diet" blog? Less than 4 hours after writing that, I read a post from Richard Bach's Blog about his new book "Thank Your Wicked Parents". Even though the topic is different, the post had a quote from the book that suited our topic perfectly - except it was said with far greater kindness and eloquence.
I didn't want to just slap the quote into our conversation all willy-nilly. I wanted to be as courteous, respectful and well, legal, about it as possible. So not knowing what to expect or quite what to do, I wrote for permission to use it. Blow me down. Mr. Bach himself answered!

And there you have why I have fallen in love with blogging and the Internet. Through the 'net and his kindness, I was able to have a short conversation with one of my all-time favorite authors! Online information can be fast and loose and unedited and of questionable quality, but at other times it is an unique opportunity to meet lovely brilliant minds we never could have met in person. I've always wanted to thank Mr. Bach directly, personally, for the gift his books brought to me at a time when I needed them the most. What a privilege to be able to do just that...and get permission to quote him too! Talk about frosting on the proverbial cake!

Here, Mr. Bach gives us an example of one cornerstone to real change. What does it take to make a real change - to take steps along a newer, truer, more genuine path for ourselves? One thing is, simply, ideas. How can you go in a different direction unless you get the notion that other possibilities really exist? Words and pictures are the bones and lifeblood of ideas. Without language and/or images, ideas can be ghostly, boneless things. Making a change based on ideas without language is like trying to capture morning fog in a butterfly net.

That is how Mr. Bach's books helped me. That is how I hope my books might someday help someone else. I had vague ideas, but I didn't quite have the language to really understand them much less live them. It felt like trying to grab a handful of an icy mist. Then I read "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah", and several others like "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" by Gary Zukov, "The Tao of Physics" by Fritjof Capra, the "Tao Te Ching" and more. "Illusions" was certainly a favorite among them, which led to reading his other books, like "Nothing by Chance", "Stranger to the Ground" and of course "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". When they were published, "The Bridge Across Forever" and "One" were on my bookshelf before they were in paperback.

Now I had a conceptual vocabulary, a skeleton, for those not-quite-formed ideas from before. Books like these wrapped that icy mist in language, transforming it into solid crystals- strong, unshakable things pointing the way to a better path that had been there all along.

Ideas like these are a cornerstone for change. The solidified ones are the best ideas to build upon. Meeting like minds, and exchanging ideas turns fog into foundations and imagination into feathers.

This is the role that modern vampire lore plays in "The Vampire Diet" blog. It helps to crystallize our ideas about healthier eating. The modern vampire imagery makes that new path more visible and, hopefully, more fun. For the "Modern Oracle Tarot" blog, the tarot cards themselves serve the same purpose. The words and images associated with the cards show alternatives we might have otherwise missed, and makes the ideas we already have clearer and stronger.

If you get a chance, I wholeheartedly recommend reading "Illusions" or any of Richard Bach's books, and please do take a moment to check out his new website and new book at www.RichardBach.com.

I have a busy weekend being dropped in my lap, so we'll get back to the quote part of building cornerstones on Monday.

Before I forget to mention it - the blogs might be a little erratic during the summer, but I'll try to keep to a Monday through Friday posting schedule as best as I can. Have a great weekend! More on Monday.

www.RondaSnow.com