For Those Stuck In Low Gutters
Have you hit some of the lowest forms of rock bottom? Perhaps you have sunk so low in some gutter with some horrid spiritual darkness and moral disarray? This could be because of your own doing or because of uncontrollable factors. Maybe because of your transgressions or misdeeds, others compare you to be pond scum? (Hey, this happens quite often).
One of the most wonderful things about platforms like Medium is the chance to meet people from other walks of life and hear stories from worlds far beyond your own. This allows key avenues for you to expand your horizons, enhance your understanding, modify points of view, and learn others have uncovered insights or lived experiences beyond your wildest imagining.
And this goes for negative and horrible realities as well as positive and wondrous ones. Consider stories like that of Ross Ulibricht, a prisoner currently serving a federal life sentence for nonviolent crimes. Or what about an unimaginable experience of having a child who has committed the most unthinkable of crimes? There is so much hope and promise that can be found even in stories like these. Many, like motivational writer and speaker Charles Amemiya, have learned amazing life lessons and recrafted themselves after experiencing dark lows like time in prison.
Almost a year ago, I wrote an article inspired by this internet meme.
Many have experienced those lowest types gutters morally or spiritually where they felt like they had lost touch with even their deeper selves. Some suffer from dark mental, emotional, or personality disorders that even become monsters consuming them. For others, even if they many good bones in their body, maybe somewhere along the way some toxic cartilage got loose. Having been stuck in darkness myself(I won’t get into this much) and having uncovered timeless insights offered by others, here are some deeper truths that can shine brightly even from those lowest of gutters.
No matter how dense the fog(either that fog one has walked themselves into or that somehow came to haunt them), their deeper self still shines ever-bright.
No matter what, each person still has unlimited beauty and value as a person. They are still filled with immeasurable goodness, love, and light that is just waiting to be shared with the world. This does not wane even if they have committed the worst of transgressions. Many of the spiritual traditions profess it is still possible to make recompense after any moral wrongdoing. This does not condone the transgressions they may have committed or the monsters that may consume them. But as Plato echoed (as well as countless others in history), the good and beauty that endure in the face of the worst of suffering or sin substantiates its indestructibility.
Anyone can rise up after any fall. And for each, there is calling for more positive and good acts to be done.
Noone should let their worst failures or transgressions keep them from rising up again, or from striving to sharing as much beauty and committing as many acts of goodness as possible. Great spiritual tales offer accounts the greatest heroes who rose from the most egregious of moral darkness. Paul the Apostle was one such example in the Christian tradition, finding conversion from being a cruel persecutor to a pivotal founding leader in the faith. Ashoka the Great, emporer and transformed Buddhist spiritual leader, went from being a horrid and violent tyrant to a compassionate and selfless leader. If some of history’s greatest legacies are of those with such recorded transformations, what could possibly lead you from finding a similar path?
And is it not true that the world needs all of the goodness and compassion it can get? How amazing that the best things like kindness, love, and goodness are essential antidotes to some of the worst things.
Some people will have strong negative dispositions towards you(even the greatest of saints have their naysayers). But others will still accept you. Others still will even still adore you and see the best in you. No matter what the outer connection, the inner love and unity remains with each person.
The more you go through life, the more you realize how piecemeal others’ opinions or dispositions towards you actually are. If your personhood has been lambasted by others, why not try to focus on what we all must focus on anyway — building lasting connections with as many as we can? There are going to be people out there we cannot connect with because of offenses in past, but at the same time there will always be more people out there who will appreciate and need the positive gifts we have to offer. Sometimes, the person who has been the worst of sinners in the past will find the calling to be the greatest of heroes or saints.
Also, remember the eloquent reminder from The Courage To Be Disliked:
You belong to the community of the earth and to the community of the universe.
So, these are a few reminders if you find yourself stuck in the worst types of gutters. There are many other deeper insights and truths that can be offered here, as countless spiritual and moral viewpoints will attest.
