ZetaTalk: Orientation

but the

actual goal. A reduction in pollution laws, packaged as enabling employers to stay in business, is in fact a power play by those who resent any restrictions on their power. The unemployment rate has nothing to do with this, but is waved

about as a reason. Wives are familiar with the common husband excuse for late hours and avoidance of home chores.

The job requires this, and the wife should bear in mind who is slaving away to bring home the bacon.

In sum, the Service-to-Others individual may be gruff, distracted, disheveled, and inaccessible. But what are they

working toward? How do they react when a truth test comes, where they must be willing to sacrifice themselves for

others? Do they come through? And the Service-to-Self individual may be suave, seemingly generous, even defending

others. But when their welfare is lined up against another, when they must truly share and words are asked to be

replaced by actions, what then?

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ZetaTalk: Distinguishing Characteristics

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ZetaTalk: Distinguishing Characteristics

Note: written May 15, 1996

A great deal of confusion reigns regarding the spiritual orientations, and how to determine whether someone is leaning

in this direction or that. Key characteristics may come into play when the chips are down, but this is seldom the

situation and most of life allows the true orientation to be masked by personality, subterfuge, or such structured

situations that the orientation of the individual does not have an opportunity to express.

Take the example of an office setting, where assignments are meted out to individuals but team work is stressed. To

the manager, the extroverted young man recently hired may seem to be doing more than his share, at least to hear him

talk, as he has many stories detailing how his expertise or enthusiasm for challenge came to the rescue of the group.

But check with the individual members of the team, and one learns that the reverse is true, as he was the one who required rescuing and feigned ignorance until other members of the long-suffering team did his work for him. When

he gets a raise and a nod, the team is puzzled, as it would not occur to them to report him to the manager for taking more than he is giving. They considered him in need of help, a youth in need of guidance, and took him under their

wings. This type of going behind the back and taking credit is a frequent sign that the individual is operating primarily in the Service-to-Self, or is heading in that direction.

Take an example in the military, where soldiers train and then suddenly find themselves on the front lines in a

conflict. During training exercises, the officers in charge can be lead greatly astray by bravado in safe and

controlled exercises. Those individuals who excelled, exhorted their fellows to greater efforts, and who showed

leadership are assumed to do the same in battle. Yet more often than not, it is the quiet soldier who made no

efforts to take the spotlight who must step into the fray and assume the true leadership position. This de facto

leader may find himself put into danger, deliberately, so the leader with the title can take credit afterwards. Dead

men tell no tales, and the record in combat stands at odds with the awards and promotions, so any rumors are

discounted. Placing someone else in danger to retain a title or position is a strong sign of an individual in the

Service-to-Self, and rarely occurs unless the individual has made their orientation decision.

Take the example of a nurse, required by law and the rules of the hospital where she works to maintain life in

her patients regardless of the level of unremitting pain they are experiencing or the pleas they may be laying

before her. She has at risk her job, her status, her ability to support her family financially, and most certainly her

freedom should she be persecuted under the law, but she determines to listen to those pleas. Certain medications that sustain the living dead, the writhing mass of agony that is in a certain death march, are flushed down the

toilet rather than forced into the arm of the patient. Who is to know? Most certainly the patient, who can barely

speak except to whisper pleas, will not complain. This type of risk taking, when there is utterly no benefit to the

self but rather great risk to the self, is a strong sign of an individual in the Service-to-Other.

Take the example of children in a household where the mother is ill, chronically so, and the children expected to

assume her responsibilities. The father works long and hard, and has no patience with chores undone. Some of

the younger children need help with their chores, especially as they fail to watch the clock and can be caught

rushing to do them when father walks in. The oldest is a girl who herself slips her chores to her younger siblings,

leaving them half done so it is not clear who was inattentive. If this girl is to dry and put away the dishes but

another child is to set the table, she places the dried dishes on the table rather than into the cupboard, confusing

the issue. That her little brother gets whipped for pulling too many dishes out of the cupboard bothers her not.

She thinks of hairstyles and makeup and meeting the right boy at the mall. The chips can fall where they may.

This type of lack of concern for others can be attributed to inattention, but where one has seen a sibling whipped

and can anticipate this in the future, it is not inattention but lack of regard, a sure sign of an individual oriented to themselves, in the Service-to-Self.

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ZetaTalk: Distinguishing Characteristics