I have been mulling over a concept for a while that I have been wanting to blog about. I love the television series Covert Affairs and received the DVDs for Season Two as a Mother’s Day present. One of the last episodes in Season Two discussed a concept that I have been thinking about ever since the episode first aired, and I have had a renewed interest in the concept since watching it again.
A character named Eyal Lavine (played by Oded Fehr) is a Mossad agent who has an interesting conversation with the lead character, Annie Walker (play by Piper Perabo). Annie says that she wants to “have it all,” an interesting career as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent as well as a family. Eyal tells Annie that her view is “very American” and that Israelis view life differently. (I have no idea if this is true or not, but I like the concept regardless.)
Eyal says that life has a flow and that you need to release yourself into the current. Rather than making all of these plans and trying to mold your life into the way you want it to be, you need to release yourself into the current of life and go wherever it takes you. When Annie asks where he thinks the current will take him, Eyal replies, “Today, the current has taken me here.” Later, after a climactic moment, Annie asks where Eyal will go next, to which he replies, “Wherever the current takes me.”
I really like this philosophy of life, and it is so different from the way I have lived most of my life. I have always had a very “American” view that I can “achieve the American” dream but putting enough effort into what I want to accomplish. However, I have found myself many times putting all I have into one direction, but life had other plans for me. As an example, despite giving my all to becoming pregnant, that never happened – life had other plans for me to adopt my son, which never would have happened if I had achieved my goal of pregnancy. If I had never adopted, I never would have applied for a job as a blogger, and I certainly never would have started blogging about healing from child abuse. If I had “willed my way” in where I wanted to go, the most meaningful part of my life never would have happened.
Giving in to life’s current rather than trying to “will” my way into what I want is a huge change of perspective for me but one that I am making an effort to try.
Photo credit: Amazon.com
I like that concept! Smiles and hugs,
Carol anne
The american way is based on ignoring reality. The US entered the world wars which will be seen by history as a war late, did not suffer any infrastructure damage and happened to win.
German engineering built the atomic bomb for the US and the US killed 200,000 people in a few months. Many in the US claim this saved lives in disagreement with many US commanders of that time.
It is often said that the US accepted immigrants with open arms. Every industrial nation accepted immigrants for labor to exploit. Just like now. Us was the lucky ones in the war so it was a better place to immigrate to.
Our nation was built on not honoring Britain’s legal claim to there colony’s.
After the US unconditionally surrendered o the Indian Nation the US ignored the treaty in effect destroying the indigenous people.
Daniel Webster designed a way to train the people to be ruled by the new republic. It works well it is called the US education system.
There is not real middle class in the US it is the government worker class. They are the only ones with pensions, good work hours, vacation and job security. I am almost there hold on.
Going with the flow for me means facing what really is and required basic needs being taken care of. I handled totaling a car very well when I could buy another that afternoon.
To be clear I am what I call a non-pensioned government employee. I am a certified environmental scientist. It is not hard it is exclusive. There is a new law and if you live within 250 feet of any water. The state gets $750 and I get $2000 min up to $25,000 for any construction on a home. Commercial which I do not do can run in the millions. I happen to live close to many lakes and streams.
My point is that going with the flow works best when fate causes the flow to be an easier way to go.
One note the CIA is not a honorable profession.
Yep, it’s definitely a smoother ride is you are riding with the current. I’ve done and continue to do both.
Never having any solid goals, I floated around a lot in life. But I was just thinking the other day how it all worked out and I’m really enjoying where I am and the person I am becoming.
Great post.
m
Thank you for sharing this. I have been mulling over in my mind the opportunities I have missed just because at the time I did NOT even see them right there before me because i was focused on other things through WRONG thinking. I could have had the man and the life of my dreams in 2001, but i thought I had to prove I could make life without a man in it to prove my worth to my mother. I spent all of my life practicing being a repellent to keep myself safe. Thinking~ I would be alright if they just left me alone. A concept I formed at less than three years old, cause when I first thought that i heard it said while I standing under the neighbors kitchen table.
It is so important, I think, to know why we have the beliefs and understandings that we do. I know better now why It is much better for me not to force my will rather than allow “nature to take its coarse” But don’t take that so far that you are choosing nothing always just to be sure that nothing can hurt you or so you can prove you can make it on your own. Abusers find out what is important to you and then control that to control you……………………….. I swear some days i feel like if my life were a video game: I would go do dishes~
Just a thought, can you make a current with tears? I have always been afraid to cry. I know if I cry, I would cry me a river. Would this river of tears make a current that would take me to a place of stillness, or down another turbulent rapid? I adore Millais painting of Ophelia floating in the river. Is Ophelia finally at peace, did she just give up? Why do I continue fighting the current and others release and flow with it and some go down stream and drown?
Love it! will check out the series! Its been one of the major aha-moments for me last year. and still is:) I believed that in order to succeed or to be happy I had to get the most out of life. I learned that there is even a name for this: maximising. and for people who do this: maximisers.
It hit me that by trying to get the most out of life I failed to LIVE life.
all the time despairing over life being such a struggle. with this unrealistic assumption about life it was only logical that my life was a constant struggle! it couldnt be any other way until the day I surrendered and started living WITH life.
as for the ” american dream”, to me its more of a nightmare. In germany we do have our own version of this, its called “Chancengleichheit”- equal opportunities for everyone. which is the biggest myth of all, with people assuming-since its implementation- everyone is having the same access to education, health care, justice, and if you dont, then its your own fault. which makes it even more difficult for social injustices to be seen and noticed. it really is a catch-22.
Currently we are the self-proclaimed salvation nation, trying to evade reality by pumping even more money into a system that is no longer working- so not going with the flow. which means sooner or later there is going to be a cash crash.