Three things I learned from Sean Penn
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”–Henri Bergson
Three things I learned from Sean Penn
1. Always wear sun screen.
2. Marrying Madonna is not the fast track to wedded bliss.
3. It’s impossible to judge by appearances.
Sean Penn, a brilliant actor, has played a wide range of roles over the years: he played a surfer stoner in Fast Times at Ridgmont High, almost single-handedly introducing the term “dude” into the American lexicon, he played a racist murderer in Dead Man Walking, a mentally handicapped father in I am Sam and gay-rights icon Harvey Milk who was gunned down in the prime of his life in Milk. In real life, none of us would choose any of these roles. They’re unappealing and, on the surface anyway, difficult to live through.
Penn, of course, chose these roles because they helped him expand as an actor. They helped him grow. They helped him become hugely successful, winning an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his Harvey Milk portrayal.
As I point out in E-Cubed (yes, I’m now resorting to shameless self-promotion), our job is to create, not critique.
Judging anything as good or bad, right or wrong, black or white automatically slashes our possibilities by 50 percent.
How do we really know that this “bad” thing isn’t really the best thing in disguise?
I believe we often create holograms of “unfortunate” things for the expansion it will create, for the “Academy Award” it will eventually reap.
Our judging minds are so quick to leap to “OMG. That’s a catastrophe.” Which causes us to shut down. Become holier than though.
Take sexual abuse, for example. Who in Worldview 1.0 could withhold judgment in such a situation, particularly when the abuse is perpetrated on a child?
Yet, Louise Hay, whose life has literally blessed millions of people probably wouldn’t be the person she is today had she not gone through that particular “catastrophe.”
Through this seeming “trauma,” she was able to find her own inner wisdom and realize the monstrous love machine she really is. Many things that at face value look like difficulties end up being miracles in the end. The cancer that we might believe isn’t fair can be a pathway to Truth. It can be a door to potent opportunities. We get to decide.
So instead of asking the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” we should ask, “Why do good people think bad things can even happen?”
Bad is nothing but a judgment call, a judgment call we’re not qualified to make. Just like American Idol hasn’t requested your services next to JLO and Keith Urban, you really aren’t qualified to judge what is good and bad.
Once we wake up every morning and say, “this is the best thing that ever happened to me” we will move into alignment where beauty and joy are free to rise.
I look forward to the day when we’ll be able to recognize and call forth the love without creating the disaster. But until then, I, like Randy Jackson, am resigning from being a judge.
Pam Grout is the author of 17 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the soon-to-be-released sequel, E-Cubed, 9 More Experiments that Prove Mirth, Magic and Merriment is your Full-time Gig.
