Beyond the Symbol: Showing vs. Being in a World of Meaning
But there is a shadow side to this gift.
As I’ve come to understand, more and more, the symbolic mind can be both liberating and limiting. When we lose sight of the fact that we are the ones assigning meaning, we risk being ruled by our own creations. We begin to show our values rather than live them. We display identity rather than embody it. And in doing so, we may drift further from the very integrity and character these symbols were intended to reflect.
This is why I believe that a curiously humble, compassionate, and questioning mind is not only valuable, it is imperative for living a life of depth, truth, and alignment.
The Power and Peril of Symbolism
Symbolism allows us to compress vast meaning into visible form. At its best, it helps humans build belonging, reinforce memory, and encode values across generations, inspiring us and fostering connection. Yet its power is not neutral; it can also deceive and divide when its connection to authentic being weakens.
Symbols as Substitutes for Substance
It is often far easier to show than to be. Easier to wear a cross than to live with forgiveness. To fly a flag than to serve justice. To repeat a motto than to wrestle with its meaning.
We pour immense time, energy, and resources into maintaining symbols—into appearances. Meanwhile, the quieter, harder work of inner transformation is often left unattended. Institutions guard their logos more fiercely than their ethics. Families protect traditions more than truth. Even individuals, myself included at times, can fall into the comfort of display: signaling values instead of practicing them.
This is the great temptation of the symbolic life: that the symbol might become a replacement for the reality it represents.
When Symbols Harden into Dogma
With time, symbols can calcify. What begins as a living expression of meaning becomes a rigid expectation. The cross, the flag, the sacred text, the graduation robe- none of these carry intrinsic power. Their power comes from us. But when questioning them is seen as betrayal, not discernment, we fall into dogma.
A flag should never become more sacred than the people it claims to represent. A tradition should not matter more than the wellbeing it once supported. When symbolism goes unexamined, it serves systems more than souls.
The Exclusion Hidden in Symbols
Symbols also delineate: who belongs, and who does not. A pin, a phrase, a prayer, these may offer comfort to those inside the circle, but they often exclude, shame, or marginalize those outside of it.
This is especially true when we inherit symbols soaked in historical trauma. A monument, a flag, or a scripture may still evoke pride for some, while evoking centuries of pain for others. And when we demand reverence for these symbols without reckoning with the harm they carry, we do not honor tradition; we weaponize it.
The Hollow Performance of Virtue
In the modern world, symbols are not just sacred—they are strategic. Politicians, corporations, even movements understand their emotional weight. Symbolic gestures can be used to placate, distract, or control. A rainbow logo in June. A kneel for a camera. A scripted apology.
The performance of virtue often replaces the presence of it. Showing becomes a tactic. And being- authentic, flawed, accountable being- gets lost beneath the surface.
The Cost of Showing Without Being
We are not untouched by this imbalance. It’s in our families, our schools, our politics, our spiritual communities. We see leaders praised for their symbolic gestures while acting in contradiction to their message. We see ceremonies that feel hollow, rituals that lack reflection, and causes that become costumes rather than commitments.
When our external displays outrun our inner lives, dissonance grows. We may feel unseen, misaligned, or exhausted by the effort of holding up the image. And we may lose trust in one another, not because symbols are bad, but because they’re no longer backed by substance.
Returning to the Core
And so I come back to this:
Living with integrity and character requires more than performing symbols; it requires embodying what they point to. It demands we ask harder questions, with courage and self-awareness:
- Am I living what I claim to stand for?
- Do I love the symbol more than the truth it represents?
- Whose story, history, or suffering does this symbol include, or exclude?
- What meanings have I inherited without questioning?
These questions require humility, not certainty. They call us into the deeper work of being, when no one is watching, when it isn’t convenient, when we don’t get credit for it. This often involves vulnerability, acknowledging our own shortcomings and biases.
And in this, I have found that the only reliable compass is a mind that is curious enough to ask, humble enough to listen, compassionate enough to include, and brave enough to change.
In the End
Symbols will continue to shape our world. But they must not define our worth. They must not replace the living, breathing, courageous work of being human.
So let us honor symbols, but only insofar as they call us back to love. Let us respect tradition, but not more than people. Let us show our values, but only as reflections of how we strive, falter, and try again to be them.
Because in the quiet, everyday choices, in the unseen moments of integrity, there is a kind of truth no symbol can hold, but every symbol hopes to point toward. That truth lives not in what we show, but in who we are becoming.
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