I just read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this weekend. We all generally know the story, or, at the very least, the principle behind the story.
But have you ever read it?
I knew I hadn’t. So, I did. And I am glad that I did. In fact, I am pumped. Because I saw a perfect example of integration (see definition below) versus disintegration.
You know the story about the mad scientist who creates a formula that separates out his evil side.
You see, Dr. Jekyll was repulsed at his darker side, his evil tendencies. He decided that if he could separate out this evil side, then he would be rid of his yearnings to do ill.
The ploy turns against him. He himself remains grotesquely tied to his evil side, Mr. Hyde. Though his evil personae acts out evil desires apart from him, he still remembers and feels the acts. They are still his.
What is worse, the more he attempts to stifle Mr. Hyde and not let him out, the more volatile Mr. Hyde becomes when Dr. Jekyll lets him out. The result is that all that is left is a mutilated and destroyed husk of a person in Dr. Hyde, cycling into worse and worse spells of evil. He dies by his own hand, as is the result of most evil.
So, integration!
Dr. Jekyll attempted to overcome his personal challenge in life by disintegrating. This is not unique. Most people try to separate from the parts of their lives, the habits they have, that take away from their ultimate goals. That try to compartmentalize it, or justify it.
The sad part is that the more we try to separate from these tendencies, to disintegrate ourselves from them, the worse the tendencies get, the worse our bouts with the evil.
We cannot separate from our inclinations that distract us from our hearts’ desires. We cannot demonize these actions as if someone “else” had done them. “The devil made me do it.” That would be giving up responsibility, and what you do not take responsibility for you subject yourself to. (Even Dr. Jekyll owned up to his part in the matter!)
I am not proposing to embrace our habits that take us away from our goals. That would be equally destructive. I am, however, proposing that we can overcome them another way. I propose that we replace them.
With a vision of a whole, complete person whose every action aligns with the goal, I believe that we can live a sparked life. A disintegrated spark plug cannot ignite an engine. It couldn’t light a match!
Instead, we should seek a whole vision, a picture that has actions that connects with every synapsis in our body, not separates them. That picture acts like a complete spark plug, able to ignite not only an engine, but a heart, a crowd, a movement.
The question that usually starts it all is, “Who is that person I want to be? What does he do? How would he spend his time?”
And, simply, do what that person in your mental picture would do.
Yes, there is far more to it than that; how post-Elizabethan writers were scratching for ways to cope with suppressed passions, how this was the time of the rise of the New Thought movement, and the beginnings of the quest to understand the power of the mind over self…
But another time. For now, simply ask, “Who is the person I want to be in 3 to 5 years?” and “What does he do with his time today?”
And get busy Being it.
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Grant R. Nieddu
Grand Master Spark
Integrity – the integration of belief with behavior. Here is the test if you have integrity: ask ‘Do my actions line up with my stated beliefs?’ Integrity is currently misunderstood. I choose the word integration because it forces the reader to look for new mental definitions.
photo courtesy of janeheller.mlblogs.com
