'elf Expressions Ezine

Freedom, coupled with extreme happiness. The concept of joyful liberation makes my heart sing. Joyful libertaion is a touchstone: a marker celebrating the power of choice. Choice to live the life you were meant to live rather than existing in a life centered around compromise.

In the stage play "The Sound of Music" there is a scene where Uncle Max and the Baroness Schrader attempt to convince the stalwart Austrian Captain Von Trapp to compromise with the Nazi military leaders, who had taken Austria's power. This scene was omitted from the movie, most likely because of the tension it created. It symbolizes a very important point.

Joyful freedom means breaking the codes of convention. To Captain Von Trapp, to compromise as his friends suggested translated into imprisonment of the spirit. Risking his life while fleeing the Nazis with his family was more freeing than serving a leader he despised. He could not compromise with the leadership of the Third Reich without giving up his soul.

If you are thinking your life today is not as dramatic as this, you may have a valid point. The core of the validity is shaken, however, due to the insidious nature of the combined impact of apathy, mediocrity, and complacency. They are dangerous. Lethal. Habitual compromise as a lifestyle adds nourishment to continued complacency. It lulls people into a catatonic type of passivity.

This is not to say that all compromise is inherently bad. Not at all. In fact, to mutually compromise can be very servant hearted and spiritual. Inspiring even. The challenge arises when the compromise is one sided. When it turns into a way of becoming a sedative, blocking us from becoming who we are meant to become.

A practical example would look like this, in the context of a relationship. Sam likes Mexican food very much. Sarah, his girlfriend, does not like it at all. So he compromises, and they go to a salad restaurant instead one evening. And then another evening they go to a French restaurant, and before Sam even notices they never go Mexican at all, even when his favorite serves standard American fare as well.

Later, Sam and Sarah get married. Sam loves cross country skiing, but Sarah does not like the cold. Sam says, "I love Sarah, so why ski?" so he sells his skis at a agarage sale. He gives up his bowling league, because Sarah does not like hanging out at the bowling alley, and they no longer attend worship with the congregation he enjoys the most.

As the years pass, Sam becomes insensitive against awareness of compromise that he lives life by rote, a paint by the numbers experience. He knows he loves Sarah, or he once did. The question is, does he love what he has become? Does he even have the capability to express himself anymore? He lost himself in the expectations of another person. Sam compromised himself into oblivion.

The fact remains: compromise repeated over time is what lulls us into complacency.

As Robert Maynard Hutchins, former Chancellor of the University of Chicago, said "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." Nourishing life to spring from a well of purpose and joyful liberation instead of from passivity will be the bridge to carry you from the plains to the mountaintops.

The example of Captain Von Trapp is extreme. What about in your life? Does it mean compromising everyday from 8-5? Does it mean majoring in finance when your heart cries to major in psychology? Does it mean giving up your desires most of the time, even on the stuff that really does not matter? Does it mean not being able to follow your dreams? Not create the bliss that will give meaning to your life?

Mutual compromise can be beneficial. It's a growth experience. Compromising your destiny in exchange for your soul, or for someone else's comfort, is martyrdom. A cost no one should pay.

I gasped the first time I watched the stage play "The Sound of Music," as the flag of the Third Reich unfurled behind the assembled Von Trapp family as they sang. I watched intently as they narrowly escaped. Captain Von Trapp said a resounding NO to compromise.

He risked his life and the life of his family in making this declaration. As the Von Trapps made their exit, the anthem "Climb Every Mountain," by Rodgers and Hammerstein, accompanies them.

"Climb every mountain, ford every stream, Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream."

Rainbows can not be found during compromise, but they can be found when the storm stops raging. When the sunlight bursts through, the rainbow follows. Follow it, to your destiny.

©2002, Julie Jordan Scott

Julie Jordan Scott is a Personal Success Coach, who left her career as a government bureaucrat and built a successful business in less than six months. She inspires people worldwide with her books, ezine, teaching, and personal coaching. To subscribe to her newest ezine, Daily Passion Activator, the Little Ezine with the Powerful Impact, send a blank email to DailyPassionActivator-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or via the web: http://www.5passions.com to subscribe today.