The Shadow Knows Versus Know Your Shadow

A Little Bit of Background or A Back Story of Sorts

I was born and raised in Philadelphia. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, my brothers and I listened to many radio shows, such as “The Fat Man,“ “The Green Hornet,” and “The Shadow,” among others.

My favorite was “The Shadow.”? The Shadow was a man named Lamont Cranston who had learned the secret, while living or traveling in the Far East, of making himself invisible using his “hypnotic power to cloud men’s minds so they (could not ) see him.”? The Shadow also could read people’s minds.? Mr. Cranston was styled as a man about town, who was ably assisted by his lady friend, the estimable Margo Lane.

The Shadow was one of the many characters on old-time radio who were crime fighters.? The radio show opened with some suspenseful music and then an ominous voice would ask the radio audience: “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?? The answer was always the same: “The Shadow knows” followed by an ominous laugh.? At the show’s end, the Shadow would close with another ominous reminder: “The weed of crime bears bitter fruit.? Crime does not pay . . . The Shadow knows.”?

Know Your Shadow

I use the above back story as a simple and, I hope, humorous way to introduce an important life lesson which is perhaps one of the greatest we must learn---to comprehend or understand whom we truly are as human beings.? That is, what is the true self behind the mask that all of us wear.

Carl Jung, one of the contemporaries of Freud and Adler, wrote about the shadow self that we all possess.? The shadow self is the dark side of our human nature.? Mr. Jung wrote that we cannot eliminate the dark side of our nature, but we must learn to manage it so that we can live more purposeful, productive, and ethical lives.?

The Life Lesson

I believe that true self-awareness or self-knowledge is the most important life knowledge we should strive for.? This is a lifelong challenge. We must truly understand whom we are by understanding what our beliefs are, what our values are, and what our life purpose is.? Socrates said it best and I quote: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”? The oracle at Delphi in Greek lore encouraged all petitioners to "Know thyself." Shakespeare doubled down when he had Polonius say in "Hamlet," “To thine own self be true."

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I hope you enjoy this unusual post. If you have, please share it with your extended network of family, friends, and business colleagues.

Cordially,

Andrew J Guinosso