There’s an expression purported to be Navajo which goes: you cannot wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep. I keep thinking, well that’s clever, and it’s apparently pretty old. If it’s old, humans have been dealing with this issue of being asleep, and pretending to be asleep, for a long time. For those who ask, ‘When are people going to wake up?’ with this idea you have a clue.
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The concept of ‘asleep’ in the sense of dim awareness is confusing to those who are indeed walking around in a trance. It’s a little like dreaming: you don’t always know that you are, though most of the time you do because a different set of logical rules apply to the world; things are not normal, such as all the cars are purple. But imagine if you were asleep and dreaming for years and years; those unusual rules would start to seem normal. The exaggerated or inappropriate sentiments, the unexplainable situations, and most of all, so much missing (such as green cars), would become part of the ‘natural’ landscape of the world.
Then there’s pretending to be asleep. That would be denial. Denial is not so unconscious as most people imagine; it’s hard work. One must actively strive to shut out information, close off options, veer away from experiences that would teach them something or stay in situations they know to be numbing or harmful.
We’re now in a moment of awakening. That basically means affirmation and awareness. Often awakening is actually a lot more than that — for some it will feel like shedding a skin, entering maturity, telling the truth about who you are for the first time, breaking free of a relationship or telling your parents to fuck off. For some, awakening feels like the outright revolt of divorce, or realizing you’re not cut out (or don’t want) to be a parent. You might figure out that the religion that you’ve been handing your judgment over to all these years is just simply full of it.
Awakening is different for everyone, as is what we awaken to. But if you’re pretending to be asleep, that is, if denial is your way of life, then no amount of stimulation or information or necessity or desire is going to make that change; only you can.