A Brother Asks: Foreign Lands...

Brother: Can you explain something to me?

Coach: I’ll try. What is it?

Brother: I read the meme.

Coach: and?

Brother: Well, it doesn’t apply to me.

Coach: How so?

Brother: I don’t need to travel. I already know myself. I would like to travel to meet others in their environment.

Coach:  Okay.  Have you ever considered the inner traveling you undertook to get to know yourself so well?

Internal Activities

Brother: Yes. Lots of soul searching, meditation to clear the brain, talking with God, applying ritual in everyday life and how to respond in social gatherings.

Coach:  And you didn't need to travel at all to do any of this?

Brother: Not to any foreign country. I’ve been surrounded by people from many cultures and with those cultures part of their countries comes to me.

Coach:  I understand.  Can we take this in a different direction?

Brother: Sure.

Coach: Was your internal world known to you before you spelunked its hidden realms?

Brother: Yes, and I’m now free.

Disconnect

Coach:  How was your internal world known to you before you spelunked its hidden realms?

Brother: I’m not connecting with your question.  I need another clue please.

Coach: Sure. How did you come to know your internal world?

Brother: What was my motivation?

Coach: No. Did you have to explore your internal world in any way, or was it all explored for you since the beginning of your life?

Brother: I had to explore my internal self.

Coach: Was your internal world known to you prior to that exploration?

Brother: It wasn’t known to me until I left school and started in the work force.

Foreign to You

Coach: So, it was foreign to you before you explored?

Brother: Yes

Coach: So, when you traveled into that foreign land, did you find yourself?

Brother: Yes. It took many years… wait… now I’m seeing where you are coming from.

Coach: And?

Brother: The foreign land was my inner world!

Coach: Yes.

Brother: And I had to travel within it to find myself.

Coach: And?

Brother: That’s the foreign land to which the meme referred.

Coach: Yes!

Connection

Brother: That land was indeed foreign!

Coach: Agreed!  Thanks for letting me tag along my Brother.

Brother: Thank you for helping.

Coach: You’re most welcome.

Brother: I loved that new word, “spelunked”.

Coach: Thank you!  I believe it's appropriate.

Brother: Indeed!

Take Aways

Coach: So, I have a question for you?

Brother: Share away!

Coach: What are you getting out of the meme now?

Brother: That to find yourself, you must travel within.

Coach: And?

Brother: That inner land is no less foreign than any external foreign land to which I may sojourn.

Coach: And?

Brother: Finding my true self requires my traveling to that internal foreign land and exploring it as any other foreign land I may encounter.

Coach: Indeed!

Brother: Well?

Coach: Well what?

Brother: AND!!!  You forgot the “and?!”

Coach: Oops!  Sorry… And?

The Work

Brother: Neglecting this crucial Travel forever handicaps me with personal deficits that shall burden me wherever I Travel until I know my true self.

Coach: And?

Brother: I’m now seeing how important the Apprentice Work is.

Coach: How so?

Brother: It required me to spelunk my internal world as a foreigner until I find my true self.

Coach: Prep work?

Brother: Yes!  Doing it prepares me for what is to come.

Coach: Indeed!  And there is much Travel to come.

Brother: Indeed!  For all Traveling Men.