Catching Raccoons
Expanding Paradigms - Fall 2007

My Uncle once told me how they used to catch raccoons when he was a boy, growing up on a small farm in the Appalachians. “Drill a hole into a log so that it is wider at the bottom but narrows to the size of a marble at the top. Then drop a shiny marble into the hole. Raccoons can’t pass up a shiny marble. They reach into the hole and grab the marble but they can’t pull their hand out of the log without first letting go of the marble. Next day you go back and there’s a raccoon waiting for you.” “But why doesn’t he just let go of the marble?” I asked.

As a child it seemed so simple to me… let go of the marble and be free! As an adult I realize that it is not always a simple thing to let go of a desire, even when it is the cause of suffering.

For many, their desires are not even their own. Many of our desires come from others – not just parents and peers. The advertising industry spent 170 billion dollars in the US last year to tell us what we need to be happy, successful or safe. Is it any wonder that people buy larger homes than they need, and then take second mortgages to pay for even more stuff that they do not need?

Not only do we accumulate desires and goals mindlessly, but worse, we become attached to these goals and follow them, oblivious to where they might lead. Goals can be fickle. They can easily turn on us in a variety of ways. I continued to play racquetball, long after the doctors and my knee told me to quit. For every athlete that wins an Olympic gold medal, there are 10,000 who failed along the way. Those that are unable to completely release the goal of winning the gold medal, will sometimes be harmed by the very goal that originally inspired them.

Goals can be very powerful tools when used properly. But a person who does not understand at a deep level what their goals and desires are, and is not capable of regularly examining, weighing, judging, evaluating and if necessary discarding old goals that no longer serve, is really just a marionette dancing on strings.