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The Gaffer's Philosophy:
Part 35: Creative Activity:
By William E. Steinman:
January 27, 2003:
In this essay, I will take over for Willie Gaffer. Next time,
things will get back to normal. I want to get into what I consider
to be very powerful methods of integrating our fragmented personality.
I have discovered one way to heal these problems is through artistic
endeavors or creative activities. I believe any kind of creative
activity is healing, because it gives our suppressed personality
fragments an opportunity to express themselves. Eventually, through
this expression, they will reveal themselves and integration becomes
possible.
We can say, creative activity acts as a catharsis for the suppressed personality fragments. I think the best example I can give of this process is from my own experience. It should not be a secret to anyone that all of the writing from Wesoomi Publishing comes from different personality facets of a single person. That person is legally, William E. Steinman. So Willie Gaffer is a pseudonym, but it is more than that.
Let me elaborate. When I, William, first founded Wesoomi Publishing, I did not know about Willie Gaffer, Evelina Bellenda, Markus Thyme, or Crazy Louie. I also knew very little about Little Willie even though I had previously discovered him through counseling. Little Willie and all the rest were suppressed personality fragments. Willie Gaffer and Little Willie are similar, but in some ways separate personality fragments. Little Willie precedes the Gaffer by many years. He is pretty much a very vulnerable young child. Thus, he has trouble expressing himself.
I discovered the Gaffer when I began my second book, The Gaffer's Shorts. I thought I needed a pseudonym. My rational was that the genre was very different. Thus the author should not be associated with the person who wrote my first book, The Wesoomi Gardening Journal. The Gardening Journal was a how to book. The Gaffer's Shorts was definitely not a how to book. So I invented, so I though, Willie Gaffer.
Of course, I wrote the book called The Gaffer's Shorts. At least I thought I wrote the book. My problem was, Willie Gaffer did not behave. Now, the joke on me is every time I read that book I find new items that I did not know were there. These are things I did not intentionally put in the work. My ego fragment, Willie put them in without my knowledge. All of them are jokes and/or word plays of the double entendre and pun variety. Some of these things are very subtle with three or four different levels of meaning.
To shorten a rather long and sometimes painful story, Willie Gaffer began to manifest as a separate personality. As he became more powerful in his own right, I began to realize his expression was having a healing effect. Still, I was not enlightened. I went on to invented Crazy Louie, Markus Thyme, and Madam Evelina Maria Bellenda. Again, what I though were simple pseudonyms turned out to be very real and things began to clear up. I realized, somewhere along the way, that these invented personas were real suppressed parts of myself. When I put the pen in their hands, I inadvertently gave them permission. They began to reveal themselves and integration began.
Now, through the act of creative writing, we are gradually coming together. Louie and Markus seem to be the most integrated. I must be honest about Crazy Louie. He is a smart mouth who got slapped around pretty good for it a couple of times when he was very small. He finally went into hiding. Markus is the kid who always wanted to go adventuring to the moon. This was 60 or more years ago and he got pooh poohed and put down a lot for his grandiose unrealistic notions. After that he stopped telling people about his dreams and ideas.
Evie and myself are almost integrated now. Her thing was to express my gentler, spiritual, feminine-type feelings. To be sure, in the 1940s for a little boy to express crap like that was cause for excommunication from ones family and peers. Willie Gaffer still has a lot to express. That is being done through the philosophy series of essays. I very much suspect that this philosophy series will become my life work. When it becomes a book, I expect it to be a coherent philosophy of all aspects of the human existence.
Now, we are reaching the point where the only one I know of whose liberation is not on track is Little Willie. His is a tough case. He was beat up by a lot of different people in a lot of different ways, emotionally, intellectually, and sometimes physically. I don't know of all the cases yet. In every one we have looked at so far, he got beat up because he made powerful people angry by telling the truth or questioning their bullshit.
At this point I am not sure what it will take to liberate that Little Willie part of me. My current hope is that he will express himself through the Gaffer's philosophy series. This is most likely to happen when we get to the education and child nurturing sections of this series. That is the area where he was most damaged. It is, in fact, the area where our culture does the most damage. That whole issue must be addressed in detail as this series progresses.
I see our biggest task as the nurturing and liberation of children to become the superior people of the future. It is one area where we are completely wrong now. Inadvertently or deliberately, we do more damage to our kids than we do good. As we express that, I expect Little Willie to be liberated and reborn. With that, we will become whole again. Instead of a set of personality fragments, we will be a multifaceted whole person.
I will achieve synthesis, but I will still be able to wear whichever hat fits the situation. More important than that, however, is that I expect to recover the creative potential of the five year old kid. I will be able to see the world through the wondering eyes of the five year old with all of the wisdom and knowledge I manage to acquire along the way.
I doubt if writing is the only creative activity that can be used to express and liberate our suppressed ego fragments. I fully believe any activity of an artistic or creative nature can have the same effect. I came upon this phenomena by accident. At least it was an accident from my perspective. Perhaps it was not from Willie Gaffer's, but I'm sure it can also be a consciously planned endeavor. One thing to notice is that the creative effort need not be approved by the so called critics. Most of those have a mind set that blinds them to new ideas.
Also, by creative, I do not mean what is usually done in industrial development efforts. That is often nothing more than a mechanical procedure executed by rigidly formal obsessive-compulsive engineers. The creative process I am talking about is a completely free, unsupervised childlike activity. It could even be goalless if we wish, though, in my case, the goal of producing readable and useful tomes seemed not to detract. That is all I can express for now on the creative process in our liberation.
Now, another technique which has been successful for me in this reintegration process entails the use of a mirror. In this method, I can sit in front of a mirror and have a conversation with another fragment of myself. This is also, in a way, a creative activity. I have made some progress with Little Willie in this way. If I couch my questions honestly, he will answer me. Honesty is essential when communicating with children, especially if they are already in hiding from what adults did to them.
In this method, it is also important to eschew disguises. Disguises are, after all, a form of dishonesty. I have found the best way is to be literally naked when I do this. I have found that any clothing can become a disguise behind which we can hide. If I dress up like William E. Steinman, I can be sure Willie will evade me. He may give answers, but they will be of the same quality he gave to adults many years ago. They will be answers designed to appease rather than communicate.
One final thing I have noticed in my journey toward wholeness is that emotional disorders will demand healing. They will push us toward healing if we but pay attention. These fragments do have a power of their own and they will create situations wherein a potential for healing will manifest. If you have claustrophobia, for example, you should not be surprised if you sleep walk and wake up in a closet. It may not be as dramatic as that, but these things will occur. Our task is to respond to the unusual situation in a courageous and creative way.
In this, it is important to assume nothing happens by accident. If we created an unintended situation, we can be sure it was not completely unintended by the entire self. At these times, when we seem to have screwed up, anger is the worst possible and most likely response. So, first we stop and think, how did I do that? Why did I do that? Then we must decide how to deal with it. What may at first seem like self destructive behavior could well be an unconscious attempt to draw attention to an internal conflict. When understood, this can be a very powerful tool for self healing.
Understand that the organism will always push toward wholeness or completeness. This will happen whether it is a human seeking emotional health or a seedling reaching for the sun. For humans, the goal of this inborn thrust is the superior person. In the end, it comes down to this. We all have a choice of what we will do. Whether we do good or bad, right or wrong, whether we try to grow or we quit, it is finally our decision. Christopher Reeves could well be the poster person for this concept. He would not quit. In my case too, only death will stop me from trying to be whole, from pushing to become the superior person.
I have no plan to address these issues of behavior and the
superior person again. For the remainder of these essays, I will
assume these people exist and will come forth. They will set the
example of good behavior. They will take control of this mess
and start cleaning it up. To that purpose, I will write accordingly.
I will outline the issues that I believe need to be addressed
by this group of dominant personalities.
This task will not take a huge number of superior people, but
it will require enough to be formidable. Perhaps thirty to fifty
people like this in the correct positions would suffice for a
start. If a good sized group of these people do not come forward,
then nothing I say here will matter. This will become another
exercise in futility. I will be a nice idea with no substance.
Though I am 72 years old, It is still my goal and intention
to become on of those few evolved people. All I can do is fail.
However, If I do not at least try, that is worse than failure.
It is abject abdication. I may be too late, but I must assume
there are others of us who are younger. For those who are not
trying to be one of us, if you cannot or will not contribute,
at least have the decency to get out of the way.
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