#266 – How did a Ghost become a Time Spirit?

Yesterday, in my weekend retail job, I understood how a Ghost (mental creations that help us cope with fear and uncertainty in childhood) had become a Time Spirit (collective mental creations that help a group cope with fear).

A store associate in the rug department told me about a great opportunity I might be interested in. When I said I wasn't planning on buying a rug, he replied, "Ah! Sure, if you had a daughter, that'd be different."

"Huh?" I looked at him, puzzled. He went on to explain that if I had "a 16 year-old daughter whose boyfriends came to visit, you'd need a nice rug and elegant sofa."

More puzzled looking and "huh?"

"Yes, because you'd want boys to admire your daughter so she'd married the best one."

At this point, from the door of the office where this conversation was taking place, I said, "Listen, I write a daily newsletter to combat this type of constraining thinking patterns – you're not going to convince me," and left, smiling.

Later, he came to my station to continue the conversation (and have a coffee). He said, "Don't you think that the only thing a woman needs is a good wardrobe, then?"

"No! What makes you say that?" It was, apparently, something Nancy Reagan's adoptive father had told her. As we continued the good-humored banter, he landed on, "I mean, because every woman needs a man."

I heard a sharp and resounding "What?" leaving my throat. When I came back from cleaning the milk jug, he'd left with his coffee, leaving me the whole day to process his male-supremacy argument.

I see it comes from fear. For generations, women have been abused, shunned, exploited. We've often enjoyed fewer rights than men and at times, rights we'd conquered have been erased.

I can see how a family would fear their daughter falling into abuse and exploitation.

And how, to protect her from that, they would create a set of "universal truths" that even the daughter would buy – "All you need is a good wardrobe and you'll be safe, because you'll attract a good man who'll protect you, since, on your own, you're vulnerable to abuse and exploitation."

That's how the individual, mental self-protection mechanism became a collective group-protection mechanism we now call sexism.

Where else in society do you spot Time Spirits that rise from individual fears?

Love,

Carolina