You and I live in a world underneath the pervasive paradigm of being replaceable. We’re rewarded and/or penalized accordingly. But that appraisal of replaceability can change for any number of reasons. “What have you done for me lately?” is daily communicated in business settings, the entertainment industry, the sports world, even in personal relationships. It’s just the way it is.
Or is it?
I no longer think so. It started when somebody told me a story some years ago. And I’d love to tell you.
It’s a true story. The S.S. Republic, a steamship, was carrying a load of gold coins which had been minted in the New York vicinity to New Orleans in 1865. However, it didn’t make it. It sank midway in a violent storm. For almost 150 years, no one knew its location. Until, in 2003, an excavation ship, the Odyssey, discovered it in 1700 feet of water off the Georgia coast.
Being at the ocean bottom for that amount of time, much of the gold was covered with a black encrustation formed by marine bacteria. But knowing its history and the gold underneath, a chemical compound was applied to remove the crust. After doing so, many of the coins were still stacked in mint condition fully displaying the pristine gold!
Shazam! An epiphany! I had it all wrong! For too many years of my life I believed the world’s paradigm for valuing myself and others. But this story now gave me a profoundly different perspective. A person’s value is not what one has. It’s who he/she is! Gold! And it’s not achieved! It’s discovered! And revealed!
This story is impactful for me because for too much of my life I’ve struggled with an “inferiority complex” (quoting my father’s description of himself), my “black crust.” I have compared myself unfavorably to others, not realizing my true significance. Rather than clawing up the corporate ladder, I was afraid I’d fall off the rungs. I know there are people who think of themselves better, looking down on others. Either way, and the continuum between, is not only ineffective but ultimately damaging . . . to everyone. The “storm” that sank me on my journey of life, includes generational and cultural factors which include a great grandfather who was the town drunk. “Black crust” formed over my true essence without my knowing. I couldn’t know and I couldn’t see.
The following points surfaced for me through the story of the gold coins:
- Like the gold, every human being has value. Even more valuable than gold, our essence is unique — DNA. But even more valuable than molecular DNA, is our spiritual DNA. That’s our true essence, who we each truly are underneath all impurities! “Essence: the basic, real and invariable nature of . . . that in being which underlies all outward manifestations and is permanent and unchangeable, the very substance of.” Forever!
- Inherent in a human being’s hard-wiring are the needs to be absolutely known, valued and desired for who he/she is. But no one has had these needs met sufficiently. In fact, damage is continually done to these needs beginning at birth, throughout a lifetime.
- We are all lost in the “violent storm” of human beings fighting one another for these needs. This fight is a fight of survival for our needs. The ultimate fight is for needs that supersede physical needs — our spiritual needs. More than life itself, we need to being absolutely known, valued and desired for who we are.
- The weapons we use against one another, even ourselves, are the distorted judgments we make on each other’s capacity to give us respect so we feel valued and/or connection so we feel desired. This is the marine bacteria using the gold but not appreciating its value. Black crust forms on the gold.
- The “black crust” for us forms from pervasive human judgmentalism. We are used instead of valued. Through a lifetime of damaging experiences, we are not desired and valued for our uniquely designed differences. Instead, we are evaluated by how well we function. The appraisers of this functionality are those to whom we look for our needs. These subjective evaluations are scored and graded by the ever-changing,“What have you done for me lately?”
- All of this hurts — it wounds our soul. So we fight back; or we leave for someone else to meet our needs. No one is seen for who he/she truly is — our essence. We see one another as all good or all bad. We draw lines of division — friend or foe; us and them. But, there is always that fear. That fear of our needs not being met. That fear of being exposed. That fear of being replaced.
- We then face what seems to be a black-or-white, rock-or-hard place decision: “I have needs to be met. If I don’t play the game, my needs won’t be met.” So I play the game. I work to hit a bullseye that moves and is always changing. We join the judges, appraising ourselves and others by what we’ve done, what we have, what we know, who we know, etc. We strive to “be somebody.” Somebody we’re not. Somebody who will be valued and desired. Somebody who will be loved. But instead the “somebody” takes us further and further away from others knowing who we truly are. Tragically, we lose sight of who we truly are. The “crust” thickens. The gold is hidden.
- But the value of our spiritual DNA, our true self, remains. Think about it. The gold coins did not lose their value. Their worth actually increased because it wasn’t just the value of the gold, it was also that these were the coins from the sunken treasure of the S.S. Republic. Great effort and sacrifice was made to find the gold because the excavators believed it was worth it. And they weren’t deterred by the black crust. They knew what was under it — gold! And they used a process to reveal it without damaging the gold.
“Gold, it’s in us all!” But we can’t see it. We’re lost. We can’t rescue ourselves any more than the coins could float off the ocean floor. And our GOLD is hidden. We can’t reveal ourselves because we don’t know who we are ourselves! We cannot do that alone. And we’re not alone. There are people who can see our GOLD glistening under our “black crust”; a teacher, a best friend, a family member, a coach. But it has to start with you! You have to choose to be found. To be free myself, I have to trust someone who is free to see.
Let’s discover together! If you choose, I will share more of my thoughts on true significance and purpose. We can discuss some practical action steps I have developed to walk the trail of discovering your GOLD. This is now something I can’t keep to myself! You are the only person on this planet, throughout time, with your perspective. You are the only one on this planet with your DNA. You are the only one throughout history with your DNA. You are the only one with your DNA who has lived your life 24/7.
You are
one-of-a-kind-throughout-time,
priceless,
from now on . . . and on . . . and . . .
Irreplaceable!