Day 1187: Fools

Here are some foolish associations with the word “Fools,” on April Fools Day, 2016:

1. On April Fools Day, 2015 (as documented in this foolish post),  I was fool enough to meet with an arrogant fool of a cardiologist,  who did not fool me or my doctors with his declaration that I was a doomed fool for not consulting with him earlier.
2. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
3. My son, Aaron, born of a foolish mother, is foolishly happy  he will soon be attending the University of Edinburgh , whose alumni include fools like Charles Darwin, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and J.M. Barrie.
4. Because I’m a foolish mother, I naturally believe that any college admissions offices that do not accept my  son into their schools are fools.
5. According to psychologist Carl Jung, the most developed and highly evolved archetype is The Fool,  as described at a  website discovered by this foolish daily blogger:

The Fool/Jester archetype urges us to enjoy the process of our lives. Although the Fool/Jester can be prone to laziness and dissipation, the positive Fool/Jester invites us all out to play–showing us how to turn our work, our interactions with others, and even the most mundane tasks into FUN. The goal of the Fool/Jester is perhaps the wisest goal of all, which is just to enjoy life as it is, with all its paradoxes and dilemmas. What causes most dread in the Fool/Jester is a lack of stimulation and being ‘not alive’.

I have no foolish photos to show you today.

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April Fools!

Here are lots of pictures recently taken by Ann Koplow, Fool:

 

 

 

I hope you are fool enough to make the foolish choice to leave a comment on this April Fools Day.

Foolish thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and to you (be still, my foolish heart!) for visiting. No fooling!

Day 322: Abandoned/The Orphan

Yesterday, I witnessed somebody I love very much, experiencing a primal, human feeling.

He was expecting other people to show up and, for a while, it looked like nobody was coming. Nobody.

He was trying to make meaning of that.

But what I saw, most of all, was pain.

I tried to provide, as I do with anybody in pain, witness to the hurt and — when appropriate — inviting room for the hope.  The hope that people would come, eventually.  The possibility that the abandonment, while painful, was temporary.

And the abandonment was temporary.

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Carol Pearson, in this book …

writes about 12 archetypes — primal human roles we go through on our journey through life.

The first archetype is the The Innocent.  That is how we enter the world.

The second archetype is The Orphan. Into every Innocent’s life, disappointment will come. Abandonment, of some form.

Orphans feel helpless, powerless, confused.  They try to make meaning of this new perspective on life, but the new feelings of loss and pain are … overwhelming.

The world is not as safe as they thought.

We all feel orphaned, at some time or other. We think:

Nobody is coming. Nobody cares. I am alone in this.

This is what we cannot see, when we feel orphaned:   The people who are around us.

Maybe they don’t know about our pain.

Maybe they are on their way.

That’s what I witnessed yesterday, with somebody I love.

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I know that feeling of being orphaned. Abandoned.

I still feel it, at times, today.

This post is a reminder for me and other orphans, of all kinds.

I may feel alone, in pain. But, truly, I  am not.

Okay!  Time for a Google Image, for “archetype orphan.”

And here it is.

When you’re feeling abandoned,  people are there, even if you cannot see them. In the meantime:

Love yourself.

Thanks to the Buddha, Carol Pearson, orphans everywhere, and to you — especially — for visiting today.