Only (Just) Desserts

Let’s talk about what you deserve.

There are two ways of looking at the word “deserve”: what you’ve been brainwashed to think you deserve… and what you really deserve as a person, as a human being.

You think you deserve a safe, predictable status quo. They’ve been telling you this for the last five hundred years, and it’s built up; you really believe it now. You believe that you’re entitled to a safe, predictable place in the world. You believe that you’re entitled to an employer who provides you with a routine and a means to pay for groceries. You believe that you’re entitled to protection and fairness and civility. You believe that you’re entitled to a regular paycheck, and benefits, and that in return you will show up and do what you’re told.

You think you deserve a steady, reliable lifestyle where someone else is responsible for your well-being. Maybe it’s the company. Maybe it’s the union. Maybe it’s the government. But in fact no such steady, reliable world exists. We are all still living in the wilderness — but we’ve forgotten what the wilderness is.

We’re so “civilized” now, we think that civilization is all there’s ever been. Our civilization now is nothing like it was a thousand years ago, which was nothing like it was a thousand years before that. And still, we believe in our inalienable right to this culture’s perceived security. Someone (the elusive “they”) has convinced us that this is what we should want, and by god, we want it. We’ll have it, no matter what. We “deserve” it.

You “deserve” to depend on a single source — your job! — for your survival, and the survival of your family. All your money will come from that source, and you “deserve” a source that won’t dry up before you have time to find another. Maybe you “deserve” to have the security of that one thing the rest of your life. Maybe you “deserve” rules to follow, and “appropriate” aspirations. Maybe you “deserve” a pension or a nest egg or a fat 401k.

Surely you “deserve” a reprieve from severe discomfort, from danger, from stress, from pain, from fear…

From challenge. From engagement. From growth.

No. It’s not true.

You deserve better than that.

You deserve challenges that change you. That help you become stronger and smarter.

You deserve the chance to connect, to create, to understand what it means to be human.

You deserve the chance to really see who you are. You deserve the imagination to envision what you’re capable of, and circumstances that urge you to step up and prove it. You deserve big trouble that leads to big success. You deserve to draw your own path forward, make your own mistakes, and revel in your own confidence — personal power — freedom of expression. You deserve to learn as much as you can. You deserve to speak your mind (or change it).

You deserve to exercise your creative potential to build and inspire and initiate growth for yourself and for all people, everywhere.

You deserve to make a difference. That’s what you deserve.

In truth, no one else can provide food for your family or protect your children. No one else can stave off the wolves or the darkness. Anyone who tells you they can take responsibility for those things for you is the architect of a temporary system, or a charlatan, or a fool. You are the master of your fate and you are the one who can decide to survive. You can make your own safety, safety that actually means something. But you won’t do it by putting your power in someone else’s hands. You will do it by initiating your own growth, and creating your own salvation.

Not by following someone else’s rules.

By making your own.

Then you get to survive.

Then you have what you deserve.

Megan Elizabeth Morris (aka MEM, Megan the M.) is a bonafide professional catalyst and adventurer. She's the Ideaschema instigator, orchestrator and autodidact, and you can find out more about her by clicking here.