Iconoclasticism: Begin With Yourself

The first step to breaking through the world of illusions is to break through your own. This first step takes a great deal of courage and humility. I had to ask questions about myself that I never thought I'd have to face and I didn't like the answers I found.

Over time, I've learned - for myself - that change always starts with a question. When I start asking questions, it's because I'm on the trail of a personal discovery. For some reason, I never realize it at the time it's happening but can always recognize it afterwards. For example, I used to be a minister. One day I was out in service with some of the older men in the congregation (they were grooming me to become a traveling overseer) when the topic of prayer came up. At some point, I said to them "Frequently, I feel like I'm just talking to myself when I'm praying." This led to many other questions and before I knew it, I'd discovered that I'm actually an atheist. 

Do you have a favorite idea about yourself? A sacred cow that you have lived by? I did. All my life I was under the illusion that I was a great student and did so well in school. Then, one day while I was thinking about going to college, I began to wonder about my high school transcript. Nobody had ever revealed my class standing to me, my GPA, my SAT scores, or any of it. So, I called up my high school, had a talk with the registrar, and had her send me a copy of my transcript. Here it is: 

WTF!?!

There you go. Four years of my life summed up on one page and, really very little to show for it.

Now, to be fair, this was an exceptionally turbulent time in my family. The very fact that I graduated at all is an incredible accomplishment just by itself and I take a lot of pride in it. I won't go into it, but trust me. Life really sucked back then. 

Anyway, my point is that my educational background was one of my sacred cows. I'm not who I thought I was. Maybe that illusion has been helpful over the years. I mean, really. I've only been asked once about proof of graduation. When I worked for the State of Texas, they required that I provide a copy of my high school diploma. Other than that, nobody gives a good GD about all this. "Can you do the work?" is all most of my employers have ever cared about.

So, what kind of sacred cows do you live by? Tell me about it in the comment section below.