Reassembling Humpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses
And all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again!

Wikipedia lists a number of different potential origins for this nursery rhyme from King Richard III to Humperdinck, a Romanian Prince. However, I've started thinking about it in a totally different context - namely, the implications from a personal growth and transformation perspective.

Bottom line, no one could put Humpty back together because no one can fix anyone else. Sure, our egg-shaped friend could have gotten instructions on the 12 steps for recovering from a tragic fall or scored some good drugs so that he didn't feel quite so broken up…but at the end of the day, the only one who could put Humpty together was….yep, you got it… Humpty.

Of course, the $64,000 question is HOW? Well, I've been giving that question a great deal of thought these past few months, and I have some ideas.

The first thing I wondered was: what does it mean to be "broken" anyway? And with that question, I'm not talking about people who have significant issues. Rather, I'm referring to the rest of us who are generally healthy and functioning humans in the world, but still have our share of baggage.

Looking at myself – which is really all that I can do – I think that the cracks come from that little negative voice in my head that prevents me from truly believing in myself and keeps me from achieving a real sense of balance and peace. So, if that's the case, then the only way to truly be whole is to face that voice head-on and tell it to shut the fuck up.

Of course, in order to have that conversation, I need to be prepared with the facts, which is going to require that I listen even more closely to that voice for awhile. That way, I can calmly and rationally address each point and dismiss the stuff that is completely ridiculous and do something about the items that have some merit.