Parallels

There was once a lady I knew who chided her child for showing off. “Calm down and stop showing off”, said she. I noticed a parallel hypocrisy in how she behaved with that of her son. The son spoke loudly and boasted a little, for that he was admonished and criticized. The mother on the other hand had a habit of driving rather fancy cars. Not only that but went to great lengths to show off her fancy attire and fancy ways. She was regularly seen showing off, albeit in a rather different manner to her son.

The fear of god, the fear of heights, the fear of snakes and the fear that if we don’t perform a ritual someone will die. Quite different fears but stemming from the same root anxiety. The same fear of coming to harm manifesting itself in untold number of ways. These fears each have a parallel with one another. Parallels are found in all walks of life. The issues men face, have a parallel with the issues unique to women. Same level of disconcertion, same amount of trouble and strife but in a different form.

Every psychological issue can be reduced to its simple form. It comes from the same trunk of the psychology tree but lies on a different branch. There are parallels between them all. We can be very reductionist. A therapist will work out what twig you are on, work down to the bottom and then tailor the same advice to your problem.

There is diversity within humans but each behaviour, each activity, each belief, each objective has a parallel to one another. Religions have parallels with social clubs. We believe what we are involved with is unique and different to that which others are involved with. In most cases they are far from different. They may seem different but are a carbon copy parallel.