Choosing your own limitations
Published: Mon, 12/17/18
Unless you have been hiding in a cave, or on a journey to Mars, for the past couple of years you may have noticed that the UK held a referendum which decided to leave the European Union. There was a narrow but significant majority for leaving the EU. However, the process, popularly known as Brexit, is proving divisive and is not really bringing out the best in the UK political establishment. (Classic bit of British understatement there.) The arguments for and against Brexit are loud, complex and frequently angry but there is actually a very simple principle at work here. Why do so many people in the UK not want to be part of the EU? This is fundamentally the same question as these examples:
Why are there so many styles of martial arts, wouldn’t it simpler if everyone (who wanted to learn martial arts) learned the same one? Why so many countries in the world? Would we not be better off with one world government? Or at least as part of the EU? Or, why so many different religions, and denominations, and sects? When all are maybe looking for the same God? And, well you get the idea. Human beings seem to always display a tendency to diverge into more and more specialised areas and resent being forced to homogenise.
Then people fling accusations at each other. Those who want to blend in with some kind of universal whole accuse those who want to separate of being small minded bigots. Those who want to separate accuse those who want to blend of destroying their culture, freedom and identity.
Neither is right of course, because we all have times in our lives when universal experience seems like the best option, and times when we feel the need to belong to an exclusive group. There is actually a dynamic process going on.
The process we are looking at here can be called ‘containment’. What I mean by containment is that human beings achieve the most when contained in a limited situation. A good example is writing this post this morning. I do write pretty much every day, but too much of what I write just goes into a notebook and I don’t do much else with it. I have expressed my thoughts but the writing is not contained in any particular purpose and no real use is made of it. But if I have decided to write a post like this I will have a theme, write on the theme up to a maximum of 1000 words (might be even better if I could contain myself to 500 words, but that would actually be harder work) and post as email as well as on Facebook. And that all needs to be done before 10am so I can get on with the rest of my work. Writing a post like this is not a vague attempt to express myself but a contained process for a reason.
One of the reasons that journalists can often write good novels is that they have had a lot of practice writing articles and reports in situations contained by editorial briefs, word counts and deadlines. All very constraining and very good training. A particular religion will contain its members in finding truth in a particular holy book. A traditional martial art will train in a particular set of techniques and Kata and look for the meaning there. If you want to train to run a marathon you need to contain yourself in all the preparation that is needed for that particular objective. The idea of marriage is that two people focus on their relationship with each other rather than chasing a fantasy of ‘free love’. If you look at anything you have achieved in your life you will realise that there was a degree of containment while you did it. That is the positive side of containment, however, as with all dynamic processes of life, we
have to be aware of the negative side too.
The Amish communities in US states such as Pensylvania live a very contained life, largely rejecting the modern world and most of 20th century technology. Teen age members of this community are sent out to live in the wider community for a period of time so that they can experience the wider ‘modern’ world. Some return, some don’t but a choice is made to accept the containment of the traditional Amish way of life. Containment is essential if we are to have any focus on our purpose, culture and identity. It is also essential that we know the alternatives that the wider world provides and can choose to expand or contract our containment as will benefit us. Young children are contained within their families and that is usually the safest place for them. As we grow up we need to discover what the rest of the world has to offer. There may be a point where we explore very wide possibilities and that is probably a healthy part of our
education. Then there comes a point when choices of containment are made in terms of work, life partner, family life, cultural and community commitments and we do our best to get on with our lives. Perhaps the key to a successful life is having the wisdom to decide which containment to choose for ourselves and yet still be aware of the myriad of choices which the world offers us.
regards
Graham
PS I would like to offer you three days of containment next June at the retreat we have organised in Norfolk. You will spend three days in a limited geographical area, living and training with as small but very select group of people with as little access as possible to modern technology (mobile phones generally don’t work there). But within that containment we will expand your knowledge of runes, stances and your relationship with trees see http://rr.stavcamp.org/