Power Chords of the Soul, pt.2

“What do you see when you turn out the light?”

“I can’t tell you but I know it’s mine.”

 Beatles

As previously discussed, the Power Chords of the Soul are long intertwining threads of thought and emotion we all carry. Often these threads are relegated to a background profile in individual experience, like a clock that’s always ticking but goes mostly unheard. Scientists agree that this tamping down of the familiar is a survival strategy adapted to leave awareness free to react to incoming stimuli, so we’re not fixated on the ticking clock while a tornado is bearing down on the house.

Certainly, subtle themes of thought/feeling, that are the natural byproducts of life experience, should not eclipse more urgent concerns. But the more we home in on and explore our own inner narratives, the more we can understand the force they exert in our lives.

Internal Power Chords can be the result of triumph, tragedy, or anything in between. They can be subjective leftovers from parentally inflicted superstitions. If a parent says repeatedly, even in jest, “Can’t you do anything right?”, that thought and the emotion it evokes can become an imprint that reverberates in a child’s psyche. Offhand remarks from teachers or friends, well-intentioned or otherwise, can find purchase in the heart and become part of a chorus of influences expressing subliminally, for better or worse. (Of course, a parent telling a child that he or she can do no wrong will also have a significant effect, only different.)

It is the nature of our emotional aspect to hold, and the nature of our intellectual aspect to ponder. I believe that each and every one of us has a private inner think tank running continuously, a subjective panel of experts cataloging and assessing data, weighing contingencies, gaming out scenarios, forming strategies. This isn’t wrong: we are vulnerable creatures in a complex world. But if I never examine or question the fodder of my panel’s discussion, the information my heart is holding and my mind is mulling, I may be making myself all the more vulnerable by “using tainted data”, as they say. Only by personal introspection, employing the intimate knowledge of my story and emotional evolution that only I can fully understand, can I bring clarity and compassion into this ongoing process, which will take place regardless of the quality of data available.

Some may object to such pursuits as self indulgent or non-productive. I would counter that, given the state of things, it is more crucial than ever to recognize the link between my habitual behaviors and echoes and whispers from my past. Bringing myself into “real time” benefits me and those around me, helping me become a more rational planetary citizen, and less of a haunted spaz.

To be continued….