Letting Go of Our Egos.
The errors of our ways.
“She sang to him, she spoke to him:
Shame on your human skills,
Luring my little ones to die
In heat that chokes and kills!”
-Goethe “The Fisherman” (1779)
The Fisherman
In the Goethe’s “Fisherman” poem, a fisherman is out fishing. A mermaid approaches him from the water and tries to convince him not to fish for her friends anymore. The mermaid asked him to empathize with the fish that he was fishing for and to not hurt them. Initially he argues with her.
Eventully, he was convincnced and dove into the water.
I view this poem as an allegory for learning to control our egos.
HOW OUR EGO HINDERS US
German poet and philosopher Johann Goethe’s poem “The Fisherman” perfectly highlights the problems and solutions with our egos. According to psychologists, we develop our egos during our first two years of life due to the trauma that we experience as children. No matter how peaceful and loving our early childhoods are, we still experience trauma. Trauma can be minor or major depending on the circumstances. We develop our ego, or personality type, to survive the trauma in our childhoods.
While our egos are excellent at helping us to survive our childhood traumas, once we become adults it’s helpful for us to have self-awareness. Having self-awareness allows us to understand why we act in certain ways and make our life decisions. Unfortunately, if we only live our lives according to our ego that we developed in our childhoods we stay held back in development in life.
Woefully, this is the life of most people. Most people don’t develop or change their lives in any meaningful way. Hence, the dysfunction in most people. Most people had dysfunctional childhoods and, disappointingly, perpetuate that same dysfunction in their own lives and their children’s lives.
Ergo, dysfunction permeates generation after generation.
LEARNING TO LET GO OF OUR EGOS- THE SOLUTION
A solution to the hinderance of your ego is letting go of your ego and ending its control over you.
By being aware of our egos, we can pinpoint how we have allowed it to control us. The ego is a “false self or mask,” it’s not our true selves. Figure out your true self, and know when you’re putting on your ego, false mask.
Avoid letting your ego hinder your decision-making, meaningful relationships, or your beleifs.
Decide what you truly believe, think and feel and not hide behind your false self.
Learning how to do these things will allow you to think and feel more clearly.
You will finally gain what you once lost…your true self.
References:
Goethe, Johann (1999). Maxims and Reflections. Penguin Classics
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