When I was young I always associated the concept of “coming out” with homosexuality, and I’m guessing most people still have that association.
A few times in my life though, I had no other way to express the sudden level of transparency and honesty that I attempted to share with people and so I’ve come out about many things in my life, first with my parents and now with my students.
The first time I came out to my mom was when I told her I was an artist. I didn’t want her to keep carrying expectations that any of ideal life would involve me being a normal employee, or even a CEO. I might start a company at some point as a way to achieve some particular goal, but creative work was always going to be a priority for me, and with that came lots of experimentation. I may live in ways that people don’t approve of, or engage in activities that people have negative stereotypes about.
She didn’t think it was a big deal at the time, but later she realized that it meant I may never get married or have kids, and that my life would probably not look nothing like she imagined. She’s slowly come to accept it.
The next time I came out was when I told both my parents that I was spiritual, not religious following their traditions. Once again they didn’t think much of it until they saw the implications. Praying to gods that they don’t believe in, and from multiple religions at that, reading from religious text of various faiths and adopting different ideas from each was a very foreign concept to them but they could accept it in the end.
The last thing I came out to them about was being an anarchist. I don’t like using this word when I don’t have to because my political orientation is more complicated than that, but I sometimes need to get across that I am always going to challenge rules and authority, even if I myself am the authority.
Today a student starting asking me about secret societies and the occult because she had heard about some conspiracy theories. I told her my honest opinion, that most of the theories out there take some truth and mix it with fiction to fill in the blanks. She asked which parts were true and which were fiction.
So I told her I don’t know if a group of occultists control the world and I don’t know if they would have bad intentions or not, but I know for a fact that there occultists and mystics in powerful positions in the world, citing the frequency of occult symbols and geometry in architecture, Hollywood movies and the influence of paganism on western religion.
Is it as the conspiracy theories say? I have no idea. I don’t want to assume things that I have no concrete proof of or haven’t don’t sufficient research on, I just have my guesses.
“You should have a YouTube channel about this stuff! It would be so interesting!”
Well…actually I do! And not just a YouTube channel but a 3speak channel and a hive blog.
And so I shared my podcast with her and she watched a few videos. I was super excited to share with her even though I was quite nervous. Many of the topics we talk about are extremely taboo in Japan and I’ve had a student or two stop studying with me because of certain beliefs I’ve held.
I could keep these things secret but then I imagine having only students who understand and appreciate my perspectives on life and maybe even some who watch my podcast and share it with their friends. I imagine not only being able to be totally transparent but actually thriving from that transparency.
It’s quite exciting to think about. What if she tells other people that I’m her teacher and they want to study with me BECAUSE of the things I share?
I think the time has come from authenticity to rule supreme, at least for those who are positively contributing to the world, and I might just be doing that in a small way but that’s certainly what I’m doing 🔥
Good luck to me 😆 and good luck to you too.
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