I reflexively wince when seeing or hearing reference to the Kentucky motto: “Unbridled Spirit”. Of course, there’s the superficial first inclination – at least in Kentucky – to conjure images of “unbridled” horses galloping idyllically through open meadows, running with the wind. How liberating!
One also might picture the unbridled, unsaddled horses of Assateague Island, unrestrained by outside forces … except for the forces of nature, which include changing of the seasons and the reluctant yield of forageable vegetation.
On the flip side, one of Kentucky’s main sources of revenue and prime tourism enticements is horse racing, a sport in which the horses are not only “bridled” – something that can happen only after their “Spirits” have been broken, but are subjected to constitution-draining workouts hauling 120 lb. jockeys around race tracks beginning at 5 am and getting whipped with a riding crop to push them to their ultimate limit! Some liberation!
However, in the purest, most abstract sense, I’ve found it tough to reconcile “Breaking one’s Spirit” with anything positive. Taking the “heart and soul” out of a creature seems a most onerous and despicable act … and anything BUT liberating.
Except that … being driven by a completely “Unbridled Spirit” hardly ever moves one forward, inevitably gets one into trouble (I’m thinking of my fifth graders), and misses the mark on “Quality of Life” by a fairly wide margin.
“Given infinite choice, we will … almost without fail … choose poorly,
choosing that which pleases us over that which is ‘Good’ for us.”
Quartermaster
Fundamentally, an untamed beast is a detriment both to himself and to his kind and kindred. Even animals in the wild develop a pack code of conduct.
So how does one “Break the Spirit” of a creature or a person and, at the same time, declare …
“Everything you deserve is going to take everything you’ve got!”
?
The solution I suggest is CHANNELING – a purpose-driven funneling/transformation of the innate, “Wild-Animal Spirit” into a formidable “Force of Destiny”.
“Everything you can be” is a completely different playing field from “Everything you WANT”. It has rules. It has structure. But, once you know the rules (and accept them) and can navigate the structure, one can go great distances unimpeded … with “Unbridled [Channeled] Spirit”. (See “Finding Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
The example of horses above is perhaps most illustrative, but I can’t help think of dog-training school. How many perfectly wonderful animals are completely out-of-control and unmanageable until they learn, understand, accept and respect the rules and structure of domestication? And how FEW of them willingly return to the wild.
“… recently … a dog walked 11 miles from its new home to return to a former … owner. The feat was especially remarkable because the dog had been taken to its new location by car and had to find its way back on foot … Even more impressive was the 2013 tale of the geolocating cat that had been lost and found its way home after a journey of two months and 200 miles.”
http://time.com/4104980/animal-navigation-pets/
In simpler terms, one can think of harnessing and channeling the power of a raging river (Colorado) with the building of a massive dam (Hoover) to provide power for millions of households and businesses across three states.
Or one can use the example of natural gas oozing out of the ground and being ignited to a conflagration by a wayward cigarette versus being captured and channeled into a locomotive pulling a megaton train.
Point to Ponder
A kite can only soar with the wind when it is firmly anchored.
The more complicated question, of course, is HOW do we make the channeling transition / transformation? In particular, how do we SELF-actuate / SELF-actualize the “Channeling” process?
Mechanistically, it may not matter. Many approaches combining both positive and negative motivational forces may be applied. However, the surest way to make the channeling transformation happen is to get the Spirit “Hooked” upon — and firmly anchored to — a grand and meritorious Dream or Destiny; it will find its own way. Dream BIG! Quartermaster
