Effy Wild

There`s a rather large incoming class for the online W1 course. So large that there are not enough W3 students to mentor them all so some of us in Level 4 have been asked to double up and be mentors students to both W1 and W2 students this year. I mention this because as this new charge of students runs amok in the streets upsetting apple carts and playing digital hide-and-go-seek they have added a new twist, their own Facebook page. The student I`m mentoring mentioned me on their new page,FB listed my FB address to the page so I did a short intro and I became swamped with requests to take on new friends (sigh). Once you get caught in a Facebook dragnet like that there`s no getting out and no telling where that net will drag you off to. I`d like to speak a bit about where the Universe dragged me in that net.

I got this FB invite from someone named Effy Wild and accepted it after finding out she was one of the new W1 students. I didn`t want to appear uppity or give the impression that the students in the upper levels of the Mystery School felt they were too good to socialize with the newbies so, even though I didn`t want to, I accepted it. I watched this person`s posts on my home page for a few days and when I saw she had posted a link to her website and blog I went exploring a bit.
What I found were incredibly brave posts about depression, art, taking too many classes and wonderful poems such as "Salt" and short stories such as "Breath". It occurred to me that among the rough tumbled stones I had discovered a gem. In an effort to be a better mentor I had found a mentor of my own.
I consider Effy to be a powerful catalyst for the creativity process. In one of her recent posts she mused on a quote by Leonard Cohen that said in part " As I grew older, I understood that instructions came with this voice",powerful stuff. Effy(who claims navel gazing is one of her super powers) went on to record some of her thoughts on what her instructions might include. She wasn`t quite sure yet what those instructions might tell her to do but she has some pretty good ideas about the warnings prior to operating her voice. Under the "DO NOTs" she lists things like;
"Shrink to accommodate other people"
"Be acceptable to others at the expense of your own authenticity"
The short and simple ones like, "Don`t talk, don`t tell, don`t feel"
and probably the most important warning of all; "NEVER give up".

I was moved to write a comment to her that I will reproduce here;

Dear Effy,

Interesting concept this "Instructions come with this voice" thing.
Right now I am deeply involved with issues on where I stand so I`ll have to put finding my own instructions on my to-do list. I plan to put exploring this concept in the top ten tough rather than just adding it to the bottom.
It`s been brought to my attention that where I stand on some things has a tendency to make some people uncomfortable. These same people have trouble articulating the exact nature of their discomfort (no surprises there). I asked these people what they thought I might be able to do to ease their discomfort. They were at a loss for words. When I suggested they might designate a spot where they would prefer that I stand they shuffled around and conferred amongst themselves in whispers. After a bit of additional coaching from me they were finally able to tentatively point to where they would prefer I stand.
In the spirit of peace I went over to have a look. I scratched around with the toe of my boot, then I got down on all fours to get a closer look and survey the "lay of the land". While I was down there I pressed my ear to the spot to see what it had to say. Before rising I picked up a pinch of soil and had a taste to see if it was to my liking. Then I came back to the group to report my findings.
I told them that the spot that they have chosen for me was, in my estimation, not at all safe for me to stand on for several reasons and on several levels. I also informed them that the very idea that they had the audacity to tell me or anyone else where they should stand on any issue made me VERY uncomfortable.

It appears we may have reached an impasse.
I plan to take a nap while they plan what they plan to do next.

I am hopeful we can come to an equitable agreement soon as I am rather keen to put these standing issues behind me and get on with this business of finding and reading the instructions that come with my voice and putting those instructions to use.
I will keep you posted on my progress.

Regards,
Daedalus

Effy allowed as how it`ll probably be OK if I can`t find the time to read those instructions.