The Fountainhead

Whatever your opinion of Rand’s philosophy, you have to admire her unrelenting belief in the human spirit and should be familiar with her ideas.

Do you have the courage to hold the space for your own greatness?

Signs you don’t: You think even the idea of striving for greatness is arrogant/selfish/egoic/not for you/etc. :)

Signs you do: In spite of the monumental challenges society gives us in the process of overcoming our conditioning, you still get up (at least most mornings :) with a firm commitment to live your greatest life.

(If you’re somewhere in between, time to read more PhilosophersNotes. That should do the trick. I hope. :)

Ah, the second-hander…

For those who haven’t read The Fountainhead yet, the “second-hander” is the one who lives for others, always striving to impress others and to “do the right thing” while selling his or her soul in the process.

Are you living like a second-hander—too easily acquiescing to the demands of others/society/family?

We all get stuck in that trap at times. But watch out!

I say to you: “You were not born to be a second-hander.”

Wow. Love. That.

(States obvious:) We MUST have a sense of who we are and have true love for ourselves if we are going to truly love another. Yah?

So, do you know how to say the “I”?

This is a really interesting/sticky point with Rand’s philosophy vis-à-vis the attitude of most spiritual seekers these days.

When we evolve from being (perhaps) too focused on getting what we want in life, we (at least I had this issue) tend to then go too far the other way and make it *all* about service. It isn’t *all* about service.

And, Rand, in her typical fashion, goes to the absolute logical limit of the fact that we MUST take care of ourselves first if we want to truly help others and tells us: “Don’t help me or serve me, but let me see it once, because I need it. Don’t work for my happiness, my brothers—show me yours—show me that it is possible—show me your achievement—and the knowledge will give me the courage for mine.”

I like to think of it like we go thru 3 stages: 1. Unconscious selfishness (it’s ALL about you); 2. Wacky Selflessness (It’s “never” about you… or so we’d like to think); 3. Conscious Selfishness (as I express myself, follow my bliss, live my greatest life, I *naturally* give myself to the world but that wasn’t necessarily my starting point (Rand would say it definitely *shouldn’t* be).

Make sense?

All this reminds me of Abraham Maslow and Marianne Williamson.

First, Maslow. He says: “The dichotomy between selfishness and unselfishness disappears altogether in healthy people because in principle every act is both selfish and unselfish.”

Plus: “Duty cannot be contrasted with pleasure nor work with play when duty is pleasure, when work is play, and people doing their duty are simultaneously seeking pleasure and being happy.”

And: “If the most socially identified people are themselves the most individualistic people, of what use is it to retain the polarity? If the most mature are also the most childlike? And if the most ethical and moral people are also the lustiest and most animal?”

And, now Williamson. Although Marianne Williamson is a near polar opposite of Rand in many (almost all? :) ways, both she and Rand would agree that “As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same…”

So, how about you? Are you spending too much time helping others and serving others but not truly serving yourself?

Life is certainly about service, but let’s never forget that the greatest service we can ever give the world and the people we love is our own happiness… our own actualization!

Let’s shine today, shall we?

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And gotta love the full quote from Marianne, eh?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

[Note: This is often, and mistakenly, believed to be from Nelson Mandela’s inauguration speech. It’s not. It’s from Williamson’s book, A Return to Love. (See page 191 if you don’t believe me. :) ]

Are you working for the “secondary consequences”? The money, the prestige, the recognition?

Eek.

Or, are you working because you simply LOVE the doing?

That begs the question: What do you (REALLY!) love doing?

Figure that out.

Do it a lot.

Watch your happiness explode.

That. Is. Genius.

Now, to be sure, if you don’t intend to make the most of your life, live as a second-hander, etc., etc., the above (and the whole Note and most of my Notes for that matter :) might be more than a little annoying.

But, remember Maslow’s admonition: “If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.”

And Joseph Campbell puts the need to be intense about our actualization process another way, quoting Sri Ramakrishna: “Do not seek illumination unless you seek it as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.”

So, as always, the spotlight is back on you.

You living on purpose?

You have the courage for your own greatness?

I love that.

First, did you know that white is simply the sum of ALL colors?

Yep. The sun, for example, sends white light down to our little planet—light composed of all the colors of the spectrum that we can’t see unless there are some funky atmospheric conditions that bend the light rays and create… a rainbow. Cool, eh? (Of course, you can also use a prism to demonstrate this fact. :)

So, as Rand so *beautifully* captures, if we want WHITE light, we’ve gotta mix ALL the colors. The pain, the suffering and alllllll the not-so-pretty colors are what give us the strength, the wisdom, the compassion and the overall mojo to let our light shine. Powerful stuff.

I say we smile at all the challenges that’ve given us the spectrum of experience we need to let our lights fully shine!

[For the record, black is the ABSENCE of color. It’s the inability (or unwillingness, technically), to allow the full spectrum of life’s experiences to penetrate us so deeply that we emerge as pure light. When we fail to see the good and the bad, the pain and the joy, within ourselves, we tend to, as Jung says, “project our shadow” (that would be black :) onto the world in the form of criticism, irritation, frustration, etc. So, let’s go full spectrum. Turn on your light.]

{Context: Toohey has spent his life trying to destroy Roark’s.}

Can you imagine saying that to someone who has dedicated his life to destroying yours?

Classic.

Let’s get too busy creating/living our ideal lives and too independent of the good or bad opinion of others to even think about our critics or what they may be thinking of us.

No space to go into what an “egotist” is. Point is: Quit comparing yourself to others. Period.

As Emerson says: “Envy is ignorance. Imitation is suicide.” (Re-read that. Take them literally.)

To envy is to be ignorant of the divinity you are. To imitate is to miss that divinity seeking it’s unique expression through you.

Don’t compare.

Let’s follow Faulkner’s advice: “Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

Well, that sums it up, eh?

Are you looking to everyone outside yourself for hints on who you are/what you should do/how you should do it? That’s a great way to live as a second-hander. Not so good if you want to be happy. :)

As Campbell says: “You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there is a way or a path, it is someone else’s path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to realize your potential.”

Where there is a path, you know it’s not your path. Someone else’s advice on the path that’s right for you is not going to lead you to your path.

Trust yourself.

[Emerson seems appropriate here: “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.”]

Genius.

Again, what do you want? And do you have the courage to go for it?

(Good. :)

Let’s end with the same quote we used to kick this party off.

Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven, but not those who lack the courage of their own greatness. Amen.

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