by C L Smith

Created on: June 17, 2009   Last Updated: January 07, 2012

Do you ever wonder why the sales stats of self-help books continue to climb even though many of us have never personally seen one of our friends enact the advice given in the book? Have you actually seen a friend or neighbor poised in the front lawn placing little pieces of paper that reference their fears and frustrations inside a balloon, only to either pop the balloon or set it free to seek a better life in the telephone wires that dot the countryside? "Be free little balloon! Be Free!" The origin of course of this potential high wire demonstration is the idea that writing down our torments and placing them in the balloons that we subsequently and very intentionally set free will enable us to simultaneously exorcise our own demons from the turmoil within.

Do you wonder why a car count in the parking lot of the medical center that houses the area's most prestigious shrinks would be in the hundreds, and yet, if you witnessed these same cars leave said lot and take flight onto the freeway, one out of every 10 drivers would be found entering the freeway with the left hand slammed against the window with the second digit poised straight in the air?

Of course, no one can say for sure, but it seems to me that this willingness to pay hundreds of dollars an hour for counseling and almost as much to purchase the self-help books in order to recognize our own personal truth may not be the best pound for the buck. This willingness to empty our pockets only to flip off perfect strangers in the not-so-privacy of our own cars may suggest our lack of willingness to take responsibility for our own happiness. It seems to me that the rush to cut down even more trees to make more paper to scribble down hate words in order to transfer our responsibilities to a defenseless balloon is even more evidence of our compulsion to seek external solutions to our internal problems. Sure, sure, I'm not stupid. I KNOW it is easier to take a poke at a balloon than at ourselves. But is it working? A lot of real life examples indicate this approach to emotional exorcism may be making us less prone, rather than more, to mend ourselves. Take education for example.

It is no surprise that individuals who are allowed to flunk a course only for the tax payer to shed their hard earned dollars to provide this same student the opportunity to take the same course again and again may not engrain in the student a sense of personal responsibility. In like manner, the wasting of tax dollars to present an identical

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