About a year ago, I participated in an equine workshop separate from my monthly equine coaching training. Shortly before the workshop began, a couple of unknown women approached and introduced themselves. They seemed pleasant enough. Immediately after I uttered my first name, one woman said, “Oh, that’s terrible what’s happened to your name!” The other chimed in with, “Yeah, it’s awful. How do you feel about it?” I quickly responded that it didn’t pertain to me. Then, I politely moved away.
As I kept this at bay and purposefully had not delved into the intricacies of the destructive spinning of my name and mockery, it was slightly off-putting to start my morning with this bit of confrontation. Presumably they were trying to express compassion and attempting to connect. Regardless, it didn’t work for this HSP.
Fast forward to recently reading Charles Eisenstein’s latest 2022 book, The Coronation. He’s described as a counter countercultural philosopher. In this, he addresses topics such as our systems of religion, medicine and big Pharma, vaccines, authoritarianism, democracy, etc. He writes about the susceptibility within the collective psyche, “transformation of consciousness and culture,” and a shift in our mythology for the possibility of liberation. He refers to separateness and societal division with a seeming agenda for collective reunion and evolution of humanity.
I enjoyed entertaining his perspectives up until the very end wherein he inserted, “When “Karens” report on their neighbors for having more than the permitted number of guests….” Ostensibly, this was to prove his point about societal disobedience and that it’s offensive to some people. Reading these words in his book took my breath away for a moment. I felt utterly shocked and duped by this intellectual and his plethora of words explaining the ills of society and our systems and paving the way to collective well-being. He mindlessly jumped on the pop culture band wagon and propagated the meme denigrating and destroying the good name of many women. His hypocrisy was infuriating and perhaps highlighted his own entitlement as a Yale-educated white male with 4 boys. I wrote to him and his team to express my displeasure and didn’t hear back. Some have called him a visionary. To me, he’s now just another being who’s trying to figure out the complexities of this human condition. I understand everyone falls out of awareness from time to time.
Even with this understanding, I found myself reacting to the “Karen” stigma and went into a bit of a funk. I started to think about other suitable names I’d feel good about. This uncomfortable process lasted for a couple of weeks. Then, I adjusted the lens I was looking through and realized I love my name. Karen is a strong name, and I am unequivocally a strong woman. Add my last name and I have a powerful combination. In fact, today I was speaking to a technician and, after stating my full name, he enthusiastically said, “that sounds like a Super Hero!” He’s the first male and 3rd person to tell me this. So, no more fretting, darling. It doesn’t get much better than that!
P.S. Spiritually, Karen “symbolizes strength, resilience, honesty, integrity, simplicity, and humility.”
