The Shadow Knows

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.

Think of them as a forerunner to podcasts. Before television. Long before we had easy access to a variety of entertainment options. Definitely before podcasts. Before AirPods. Way back then, there was radio.

And in those glory days, people gathered round to listen to dramas, comedy, music, and so on.

One of the long-running dramatic radio programs centered around Lamont Cranston as the crime-fighting Shadow, when masked. Unmasked, he was simply another wealthy playboy.

The serial show began in the early 1930s, and lasted until 1954. In the radio hit, the Shadow worked for justice and right outcomes. Fairness. Truth.

In the same chronology, but otherwise unrelated, another understanding of Shadow was emerging.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung developed the way we think about the inner parts of ourselves that limit and sabotage our relationships. He called it our Shadow. An we all have one.

That’s right, we all have a Shadow side. And, yes, it limits us. Denial doesn’t work for this Shadow. The only way to “win,” if you will, is to meet it head on, and begin what can become a life’s commitment to diluting its negative effects.

0n the Wonder Files podcast today, my guest is the Rev’d Dr Richard Mallory, who I invited to share about the ManKind Project. Encountering and understanding our Shadow is integral to its work. Check it out here.