Amoralman favorite quote
Truth and lies are two sides of the same coin. But who’s flipping it? – back cover of Amoralman
Lessons learned from Amoralman
1. Be willing to leave the cave.
They’ve never seen the outside world. The cave is their world. And all they know is what they’ve been shown: shadows. – Page 3
Amoralman begins with a story of a group of people whose whole world has been living in a cave. Their entire reality and understanding of the world are shadows. However, this is their truth.
We grow up often in a theoretical cave and all we know as truth is what we have been taught by the people we have learned to trust. Our cave is safe, and right and anything contradictory is wrong. It is so hard to know that there is a bigger world out there and the things we see and know are only shadows of the actual truth.
The sooner you can step out of the cave of your “truth” and explore and learn and begin to see the bigger world the better life becomes for you. Most of the conflict and fighting that goes on in our world is because too many people won’t leave their caves and broaden their understanding of situations. I can’t tell you how many times I have refereed an argument between two people who are saying the same thing but see the issue from their cave instead of seeing the whole issue from all sides.
2. Be the light.
There’s a lot of darkness in this world, kiddo…Be the light. – Page 14
The author tells a story of the first time he can remember being dishonest, or lying. He didn’t give his mom the change from a purchase and kept it for himself when he was 11. The guilt ate at him until he couldn’t take it any longer and confessed to his mother. His mother allowed him to keep the money because he came clean.
As kids rarely do we have to be taught how to be naughty it seems to come naturally to us. Most of our childhood is spent getting in trouble and a parent or someone teaching us what we did wrong and teaching us to be good. The first word most kids know after mom and dad is mine. It seems as though every kid knows that word and uses it often. That’s mine, I was using it first, mine, mine, mine.
We are surrounded by the bad things people do constantly. The news is mostly negative, we are arguing and fighting with each other it seems more than ever before, and when someone does anything remotely good they are celebrated as a hero.
If we could start striving to be the light in the middle of the darkness we could really begin to see people’s lives changed. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day but if we strive to be the light we can lighten someone’s day which can begin a movement. Be the light.
3. Be willing to return to the cave
In Plato’s story, the prisoner escapes and sees the outside world, then returns to the cave to release the other prisoners, only to be threatened by them. – Page 138
it is often easy and actually healthy to leave friendships and relationships as we grow and mature. In fact, I believe for us to truly grow and become the best version of ourselves we will have to leave people and relationships behind because they aren’t going in the same direction as we are. This can be one of the hardest parts of growing and maturing because we struggle with actually cutting ties when necessary.
However, I have also seen that it is easy once we have matured and grown to look back at people and judge and pity them. It is easy to look at people who struggle with something that we don’t and treat them as lesser than ourselves because of that struggle. I have learned that people grow and mature at different rates and often times it takes someone who has been there and pulled themselves out of the cave to give hope that it is possible.
Once you have matured and grown and pulled yourself out of the metaphorical cave be the person willing to return to the cave and offer hope. Sometimes it is met with anger, attitude, or downright disgust but don’t let that stop you from going back to the cave to offer a hand of hope. You never know whose life you will transform by just returning to the cave.
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