Stewardship, 2nd Edition

I Want My Mentor

As people go through the experience of exploring their unstated emotional wants, they begin to realize that, exaggerated as they might seem, those wants represent real desires; they are the way that dependency and dominance get operationalized. Patriarchal contracts, parent-child contracts, feed on this kind of longing. They become the mechanisms by which we control each other and hold ourselves back from living out our own vision. It is because we want others to provide us safety and self-esteem that we are willing to live out the vision created by others and deny our own. Patriarchy becomes a refuge for our reluctance to choose adventure and pursue our own purpose.

When we give up the search for others to provide us safety ...