Thick Skin, Deep Roots
About 30 or so years ago an experiment was conducted called “Biosphere 2”.
Have you heard about this? It’s pretty wild.
The idea was to see if we could figure out a way for humans to live in a sphere container of sorts that was closed off from the outside world, but had everything in it that life needed to survive:
Oxygen.
Houses.
Vegitation.
Sunlight.
Water.
Etc.
I may have some of those details wrong (the story recently popped up in 2 different boosk I’m reading and so it’s got me thinking!), but the general hypothesis was that IF we could make life sustainable in such a sphere on earth then PERHAPS we could make life within a sphere sustainable on another planet.
Anyways.
So things were going along great and trees and stuff were even growing, everything and everyone seemed to be thriving. But then something interesting happened - when the trees in the biosophere shot up and reached a certain height, they fell over.
Weird, right?
They grew.
And grew.
And grew.
And grew.
BUT.
Every single time they reached a certain height, they toppled over - they looked fine on the outside, but something that was undetectable from the outside was obviously wrong.
Long story short, what the scientists discovered was that because the trees weren’t exposed to wind and various other elements while they were growing, they didn’t develop the deep roots and thick bark that they needed to grow strong and tall.
In other words, depriving the trees of wind, rain, storms, etc. and keeping them safe in a somewhat small, danger-free container actually hindered their growth so much so that they were prevented from reaching their fullest potential.
There’s a lesson there, no?
Just as trees need something pushing against them while they are growing so that their bark can grow thick and their roots deep, I think that we need various elements of life pushing up against us so that we can develop thicker skin and deeper ethics, and be able to grow into our fullest potential as human beings.
But this goes against the way our world operates, doesn’t it?
The goal is to avoid pain.
The goal is to avoid hardship.
The goal is to avoid arguments.
The goal is to make sure our lives are as easy as can be.
The goal is to make sure our kids have as much smooth sailing as possible.
We live in a world where we aim to protect ourselves and our kids from emotional and physical bumps, bruises, etc. as we aim to make our lives as smooth and problem-free as possible.
BUT.
What if in doing so … what if we are actually hinderng our growth? What if we NEED problems? What if we NEEDbumps in our relationships? What if our kids NEED to feel left out on the playground once in a while? What if our kids NEED to have an argument with their friend? What if our marriages NEED some disagreement or friction? What if our jobs NEED to be annoying sometimes? What if we NEED to feel sad sometimes? What if we NEED to not be smiling all the time? What if we NEED to feel lonely sometimes?
Right?
What if we NEED the winds and storms of life to blow against us so that we develop thick skin and deep-rooted ethics to become stronger people, stronger contibutors to society, people who will be more empowered and more equipped to make the world around us better?
And so I’ve been asking myself - what storms do I tend to avoid? What storms do I try to push away from my daughter’s life so that her life can be easier? And what would happen if I would aim to make room for some storms instead of working so hard at extinguishing them? Work at navigating through them as opposed to avoiding them?How might they make me stronger? Better? More complete?
I’m not sure, but it’s worth thinking about.
Much love.
Glenn || SUPPORT THE PODCAST