Summary: If you know me at all, then you know know this line is one I frequent: ‘If I hear one more chirpy Do Gooder tell me to let my light shine, I think I might break something.’ My feelings still haven’t changed and I need to tell you why. When I first made that statement, it was in part for dramatic effect, but it was primarily in response to a woman who told me how tired she was of hearing New Agey types like me dole out flowery directives without suggesting how to keep on shining. She already knew that letting her light shine—or daring to be her real self by taking up space in the world without asking anybody’s permission—sometimes meant letting her ass get kicked by life in the process. Which likely explains why she wound up in my course in the first place: she wanted support for those times it felt like all people wanted to do was put her lights out. When a chirpy Do-Gooding New Ager says, “Let your light shine,” here’s what it sounds like to me: Permit the blissful radiance of The Divine to surge outward through your primordial essence to illumine the darkness of this manifest world like a spiritual lightning bug flickering thither and yon and alighting joyously upon your midnight rose of quivering despair. Barf. These are but a few of my issues with Chirpy Do Gooders: 1.) Chirpy Do Gooders speak in flowery tones most of the time, and real people—people who give themselves access to their full range of emotions—don’t limit themselves to just one spot on the dial. That’s because as humans, every now and again, we lose it. We cry ugly, we get messy, we goof and struggle. And if Chirpy Do Gooders do, they don’t let on. And I don’t like that. 2.) Chirpy Do Gooders are so consumed with ‘healing’ and being bubbly that they’re useless. My aunt Cleo used to say religious zealots were so holy, high and mighty that they weren’t no earthly good. It’s hard to relate to them because, well, see #1. How can we take people like that seriously? 3.) Chirpy Do Gooders don’t give us the whole story. People who only hand me the rosy part of the picture leave out the thorns, which are as much a part of the image as the rest. It’s a disservice to omit the fact that answering the inward call to shine and be oneself in the world is a carefree affair. It’s not. It often comes as an inconvenience and at great cost—a cost we can’t grasp until we’re in the thick of it. Remember that phrase coined by the late American mythologist and teacher, Joseph Campbell? He coined the phrase, “Follow you bliss.” I believe he meant it as a guide to living an intentional life in service to discovering the best that's in us. But, wouldn’t you know it, Chirpy Do Gooders swooped in and disfigured its meaning in the years that followed. Campbell later grumbled, ‘I should have said, follow your blisters’ because it’s a huge mistake to overlook the sacrifice and hard work required along the way toward becoming. We lost a lot of greats last year. Within the span of ten days, the world said goodbye to three luminaries who touched our lives in ways we may never fully comprehend. There was Wangari Maathai, whose fierce environmental and political activism earned her a Nobel Peace prize. There was Steve Jobs, whose innovative design and creative vision changed the way the world computes. There was Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, whose fearless pursuit of freedom and equality not only introduced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the world, but it also put the cause of civil rights at the forefront of American politics. Each of these pioneers let their light shine. Despite the many odds against them—powerful opposition from the status quo, unthinkable political pressure, no proper offices from which to work, no benefits nor backup plans, personal failures made public, and in some cases, racism, and persistent death threats—they followed the call of their convictions without buckling under the tremendous weight they carried.
