About Value and Worthiness

"On this planet, getting things done has been confused with worthiness." 

I think this statement is very true. There is a whole lot of value and status given to those who accomplish a lot. Although I would not wish to come across as if I don't value another's achievements, I do believe that value needs to be spread out differently. In fact, I think value is something that a society should not be able to decide for the individual. Value and worthiness are very personal attributes. To me they are a feeling. 

I understand that my contributions to society are mainly invisible. Or the visible ones are so "out there" that mainstream oriented folks cannot see any value in what I have to offer. In fact, my life choices and subsequently my life style are so unorthodox that I do stick out like a colored cow. I have created this all by myself. I've not taken many role models into account, but followed my own drum. By doing that I have disengaged from the comfort of having society or the masses dictate and grant me my values and give me my sense of worthiness. As a result of this, I had to reach the rock bottom of feeling unworthy. I did and began to build up my own sense of worthiness, based on my inner values. These are not values that are meant for the rest of the world. These are my own individual values and they alone dictate my very personal sense of worthiness. The empowering thing of going through such a metamorphosis is that nobody can take my self-worth away but me. I have disengaged from giving this sort of power to the society at large and truly nobody can thus judge me effectively and with that judgment dictate my sense of worthiness.

Along with this transformation came a gift. Not only am I free of societal dictatorship when it comes to my own values, but I also understood where along the line I had given up my ability to self-evaluate. It was in fact very early on. Probably as early as Kindergarten. Public school has done the rest and has created the matrix within which I could reach that place of rock bottom. It is this observation that leads me to hope that there will be a change in the school systems soon, to foster individualized schooling that focuses on bringing about creativity and focus on the actual talents of the kids who are humanity's future. Through the talks of Sir Ken Robinson I found on www.TED.com, I feel that with proper changes in the school system, the shift from giving society the power to judge one's worthiness to taking the responsibility onto oneself to bring about true self-worth will be one of the results. 

In one of his talks, he quotes this poem: 

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven  

by William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. 

I would like to add that as individuals we can already do at least as much as to tread very softly on the dreams of anyone around us. In that consciousness alone lies a pearl of wisdom that not only allows for the individual's true creative nature to come forth, but also for their sense of worthiness to develop unhampered by continuous judgments or conventions put upon an individual by society at large.