Thursday, March 8, 2012

I.A.L.A.C.

When I first heard this acronym, I was at a loss about what it meant. For some reason I had made it to adulthood without hearing the "word" but understanding implicitly the meaning behind it. I Am Loveable And Capable. Oddly enough, too many of us don't hear that message enough. I'm here to tell you, otherwise you may never hear the acronym either and although you may have a sense of what it means, understanding often grows out of specific definitions and overt examples. We may come to some agreement on the term I. Amongst many, there needs to be a ramped up discussion about the term I, but as many of us know it, let us say that it is what we call ourselves, what we can see in a mirror and that carries the true self through our many and varied experiences, this vessel that our ego uses to define our specific organism. For now, let me just let this definition rest with you.

Am is the state of being verb that indicates that we are always such, it is our true state and immutable as long as we are taking up space in the physical realm, are able to understand being and ceasing to be, or otherwise animated by life.

Loveable and Capable threw me a bit when I first heard this idea. Was it possible that some people would understand themselves to be something else? Then I started to understand the depth and significance of the statement. Many of us are taught that we are not loveable and certainly our capabilities are frequently challenged along the course we plot through life. We frequently bump up against those who would judge us harshly or burden us with their own ego defense mechanisms. We may not yet have heard the words, but we have all seen the situation where the one person burdens another person with traits or deficiencies that they feel within themselves, but cannot admit. There are cheaters who are always seeing others setting them up to be cheated, angry people who think that everyone is angry with them, or those who think that they are stupid, but never miss an opportunity to call someone else this hateful and offensive word.

In fact, we are all capable, not just of shining in the best of times, but under daily challenges and situations that may only come along once in our lives. That is just part of why we are so loveable. When I first heard this idea, I thought what a bunch of pansy ass liberal crap. I knew full well that there were those amongst us who are not loveable and I had certainly seen by that time, in my early twenties, that incompetence runs at a pretty high rate, especially in large institutions like government, the military and industry. As I began to delve a bit deeper into the slogan, I changed along with my own beliefs into a better person capable of forgiving and loving those who I had formerly seen as useless and detestable people. In spite of our illusions to the contrary, even the most heinous or useless person is still loveable and capable, just not for the same qualities or abilities as another.

Babies, for instance may not be able to tie shoes, but in the overall scheme this could not matter less, because they are usually carried or on their hands and knees anyway. some people only need to perform one specific function anyway, so their capabilities are never fully understood. I heard it said the other day that each of us should begin to use our brains differently. We need to exercise our brains as well as our bodies, learning for at least fifteen minutes each day. We are all capable of exercise, even if we face some physical or mental challenges with regard to it. Capability combined with practice develop capacity. Sometimes, as we develop our proficiency in one area, we will discover capabilities in other areas as well, this is all part of growth.

As I gain more and more experience here on Earth, I find that love is not limited to those who deserve it, or can prove their worth, it is the natural state of things. When we are not faced with our own feelings of lack, threat or fear, it flows like a torrent from our heart of hearts. If we focus on any attribute deemed negative, we can dull our feelings of love, but as we learn to see through the lies that our egos burden us with, the love becomes harder and harder to mask with love and dissatisfaction. Sometimes our heart goes out to those we witness struggling. Even those we do not know can inspire a deep sense of abiding love. Just being human is enough to inspire love. As odd as it may sound to the cynical and unenlightened, we are all loveable and capable.

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