You’re Going the Wrong Way Dammit!

By Lisa White

It’s funny the things you remember at a time in your life when you need guidance and you know that the only answer worth living is going to come from deep within.

When I’m at that time in my life, I’ll consult my intuition, my inner knowing. I’ll ask for an insight on a decision or a course of direction that I’m considering. Over the years, I have found that I will sometimes receive guidance in the form of scenes from movies or songs. Sometimes, they may seem comical, but upon reflection, there is always a deeper message.

One of the scenes I’ve received these days when I contemplate my life and the direction I need to take is a scene from the Poseidon Adventure. I must have seen that movie over 35 years ago when I was a kid. I can’t recall anything about that movie except this one scene. It’s a scene where two escape parties meet up as they are trying to find their way out of a sinking ship. The leaders of each group, a doctor and a reverend played by Gene Hackman, have an exchange and argue about who is right in their ideas of how to get out and survive. At the end of the exchange they each stand by their decisions to go the way they believe to be the best and the reverend ends up screaming “You’re going the wrong way dammit!” Of course, in the end, the reverend’s group lives and the doctor’s group dies.

What I find interesting about the characters is that a doctor represents the thinking mind, one of rational ideas and science, the proven and familiar. A reverend represents a knowing based on instinct and inner faith which to the casual observer may seem irrational and unproven.

I find myself between lives and wrestling with which way to go. One way represents the old me… a growing, building, competing, striving me. The other way represents a new vision I have for myself that wants a life of simplicity and sustainability. I find myself standing between these selves, these lives…one that is dying and the other not yet born. It’s frustrating, because my old self and they way I lived is familiar…tried and true. I want to go back. The new self is a vision that I will have to feel out and let evolve on its own schedule…unproven and a risk.

OM Times Magazine » syndicated