Evel Knievel And The Expectations Of The Public
Astrology in real life
Yesterday I was working on various things, the blog, the class, the dispatch and the house while the soldier was watching a biography of Evel Knievel on TV. I’d have been watching it with but most of you know I grew up without a TV and have never acquired the habit or even a mild fondness for it but I do love the soldier so every now and then I’d sit next to him and watch a few minutes.
Evel Knievel was a piece of work to say the least. His daredevil nature is unparalleled as is his shocking bluntness (Jupiter in Aquarius in the 1st house). Knievel was a violent man. He beat women and he also beat a studio executive with a baseball bat. His attorney wanted him to plea but he refused. Matter of fact he said he did the man a favor by beating him.
Knievel was talking candidly about his career in interview bit throughout the program and he said it got to a point where they (the public) had inflated him to such a degree it led him to quit.
“They were saying I jumped over the Grand Canyon,” he said. “I jumped the Snake River Canyon, or tried too. I heard a guy say he saw me jump 100 cars in the Los Angeles Coliseum. No, I jumped 52…”
They were making comic books about him and so forth. He had become a larger than life red, white and blue super hero and he said there came a point there was no way he could meet people’s expectations and stay alive. As soon as he said it, the soldier and I looked at each other.
“It does get that way in Special Forces,” he said. “You get to where you can do a lot but you can’t do everything. There are things you can’t do but they think you can or should be able to.”
“You’re telling me. The same thing happens to me on my blog… online. I don’t know how these people can expect me to do more than I do but they do. You become a non person. You are no longer seen as a human being that has any limits to perform…”
I think this is a good topic for the sky today. The Sun, Mercury and Mars are in Sagittarius….. over the top optimism and expectation. The Moon, Venus , Jupiter and Pluto are in Capricorn representing reality and all of us are caught between these two energies. As I’ve mentioned together they form a natural pair and it reminds me of something the soldier told me long ago… back in 2003, it must have been.
He said he felt people expected too much of other people in their relationships. He went on to say he felt if they would lower their expectations just a little bit they would probably be much happier. “Because as it is, most people have expectations so high no one will ever be able to meet them.”
Are you someone who expects a lot from people or someone people expect a lot from? Can you see a correlation between your expectations and the level of your satisfaction?
28 Responses to “Evel Knievel And The Expectations Of The Public”
What satori said.
I mean, we’ve all got our fantasies of “perfect”. We daydream about them, ponder on them. Realistically, they tend to be unattainable. I recognize that, and just enjoy the lift the daydreaming give me while lowering my expectations in the real face to face world.
I usually feel like people expect me to give more more more. But that could well be the flip side of my own escapes into daydreaming.
not on topic, but as a little girl, Evel Kenievel
was my ultimate hero.
I wanted to be him Soooooooo Baaaaaaaaad!
I am neither…I try not to expect anything from anyone, it only sets you up for disappointment in the end when you have expectations. And really, I think putting expectations on others is completely unfair. (to the other person) Even for basic things - for instance, I would like it if other people would just get along, but do I expect it? No…that would be foolish.
Anyway, I don’t feel as though anyone expects a lot from me either. I am a wife and a mom, and I do my best to handle all of my duties, but I don’t think it ever gets to the point where someone says, “I can’t believe you didn’t do this” or that, or whatever…Frankly, when people start putting their expectations on me, I amputate. I’ve no need for additional pressures in my life. It may make me lonelier, but I’m also less stressed! And that’s important to me, and my family. 
I think I am neither. I definitely don’t like to expect a lot from people, or anything in particular … likewise people are usually better off with me to expect the unexpected … for example, I like to do things and give with no strings attached, but I wouldn’t want to do it if I was being forced to do it, and my behavior is frequently altogether erratic.
I find that the lower my expectations are, the better off I am.
What people expect of me…I really don’t know.
I expect a lot from people but am not disappointed when they can’t give me what I want from them.
This is one of the lessons that I have learned in life, and it’s sort of weird…
Maybe this is part of the “lesson set” that Saturn/Neptune has given me. I’m a really big dreamer…I mean HUGE. I could fantasize for years on end about the places I’m going to go, the people I’m going to meet, the jobs I’ll have, the beach I’ll sit on, the food I’ll eat, the colours of my walls…at any time reality will surface and if it doesn’t match the fantasy well I was aware that I was fantasizing and I just grieve the death of a particular dream and move on.
But I try really hard not to hold it against people if they aren’t what I want them to be. I favour an Aquarius approach to difficult relationships (I have Uranus in my 11th House, the house of friendship).
To quote Dane Rudhyar:
“Success or failure can be used imaginatively and creatively only if you have not become identified entirely and blindly with your struggle for achievement.”
As I associate good relationships with success in life in general, this makes total sense for me.
As for people who have expectations of me and express disappointment when I don’t meet them, I can be a little cold about it. As in, “too bad for you I’m not who you want me to be.”
I guess that’s my Capricorn Moon in the 1st House (square Pluto) talking.
It would be really easy if people would tell you what they really want. I think there is a huge bag log of Neptune because of the 60’s in all relationships..People have an agenda of expectations. I think there is a bigger problem in having clearly defined roles in relationships.
Depending on your upbrininging, you have different ideas on what the role of men and women should be. I think growing up in the 70’s defining moment..Funny Knievel comes up I was thinking about this last night —
I would like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony Do you remember that commercial ?
As I kid I always thought it was ungenuine and a way to sell coca cola…But it was also the area of yard jarts or darts do you remember those things ? Something very ungenuine about that coke commercial but I was a weird kid. I shoould have been able to enjoy the commercial…Not think about its repercussion on society..
…or yard darts to the head.
Hell yes I have expectations. My Leo rising wants to be valued. I want to have honesty and integrity and respect in all my relationships.
What I have learned as I got older was not to expect others to _be_ me. I now avoid attaching the meaning to others’ behavior the same way I would to my own. People are infinitely complex and have so many feelings, perceptions, pressures, needs, demands, on and on, that there is no way I can know what any particular thing means to them. Nor can I know what set of circumstances exactly they are trying to cope with.
i hated that coke commerical. i just thought it was utterly stupid to imply drinking coca cola would bring world peace.
I expect a lot from people, especially in love relationships. I’m very idealistic. It’s agonizing. Always disappointed.
Guilty as charged. I’m not sure how to get past it (and a lot of other things) with Neptune in Scorpio on my ascendent.
I hated it cuz the song would get STUCK in my head
I always expected very little, but as I have finaly learned to value myself a bit, I expect more. It is strange, though, people are usually impressed or intimidated by me, and they seem to think I can do anything…( wonder where they got this impression? Laughing at myself) I really am afraid to be seen as needy, and I am working on the idea that of course I am needy: everybody is needy in some way, and to make that be ok, after all, I think other people’s needs are just fine.
In other words, my expectations of myself are too high, I’m trying to lower them. I do hate whining though, mine, or anyone’s.
I do have expectations and I am currently dating a bubble head and I am wondering if I set the bar low because I do not expect much of anything.
I have become a bit of a female chauvanist and have this attitude that the opposite sex is inferior to women and controlled soley by hormones and food and very little brains…
I should be nicer men have feeling too I think ? LOL…
Hmmm…my expectations are not that high regarding others, which rarely leaves me feeling let down. I am very hard on myself though, and I expect myself to always do the right thing.
I have to say, that mentality has panned out pretty well for me: I don’t feel let down by others, and I rarely let others down.
I think I have high expectations in my love relationships, but very little expectations elsewhere.
Except for at work and school. I expect people to be competant, and am sometimes disappointed.
Yeah, people expect a LOT of me. I think that’s because I usually follow through and perform quite well. Either that or I come off as the only competent person in the room (no TV lots more life experience).
I think that we need to differentiate between expecting something from someone that they are not capable of performing in any way shape or form and expecting something from someone that they can but are too lazy, insecure, hung up on something else etc. etc.
Example: expecting your child to be a doctor when they are passionate about writing versus expecting them to treat those around them with respect and kindness.
I hold very high expectations of the people around me but I’ll be the first one to say that 1) I do not expect more than I expect of myself and I tend to outperform them daily 2) I do not hold it against them for not meeting my expectations unless they explicitly promised to meet an expectation and then failed spectacularily without extenuating circumstances.
I am, usually, the first in our group to be able to see things from the other person’s point of view “what if she just found out her mother is ill” “what if she had another fight with her sister” etc. etc. pointing out that it may have everything to do with stuff happening in someone’s life that we aren’t privy to.
I remember years ago someone asked me what I was looking for in a life partner. I named a pile of charachteristics and was told that was a pie in the sky. I said, no, that is nothing less than what I am and I deserve someone with those same good qualities. All I can say is that I’m glad I was picky - he’s not perfect but he’s perfect for me.
I have lots of unconscious little expectations that I mostly don’t think about for all sorts of situations (especially with friends and how I want them to react vs. how they actually do), I don’t spend time thinking about someone who’s perfect though. I want simple juxtapositions that don’t always happen in potential partners. Like a cocktail. Like my friend who wanted a sophisticated older man to appear from the sky and take her out to dinner and not fuck on the first date while refusing to go to gatherings and try to scope out one of those people.
I have a very hard time figuring out what normal expecations are, I think due in large part to having an alcoholic father. My mom once said about an ex, “Well, he doesn’t hit you..” when I told her I was leaving him, so I would say my expectations are certainly higher than hers, but not so high as to be unmet.
People mostly expect a lot from me at work, not necessarily in relationships…but they expect a lot because I DO a lot and make it look effortless 
I know there are good people out there, but I’ve seen too much stupidity (especially in my hubby’s family) to have any expectations. Mine are pretty low. I’ve been surprised many times, though.
My dad is an all around wonderful man–he’s a Scorpio with the Moon in Gemini. I grew up thinking everyone was as noble and honorable as my dad. I was in for a rude shock, but it didn’t happen until I was older. Once I got to college, that’s when the shocks started…and they kept on coming, for the last 20 years…
Even though I’m cynical now, I know there are people who aren’t ignorant, mean, petty, spiteful, etc., etc. They’re just hard to find.
Beautiful post!
I rode my bike down the basement stairs when I was a kid, trying to be Evil Knievel. (Mars sq Uranus I guess.) Also rode down a big dirt pile a bunch of times haha.
cool, Jilly, you are hardcore! it sure beats my wanting to be a horse and grazing on the front lawn. try explaining that to the neighbors. my poor mother.
watch out, kasmiri, I kick and bite!
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that’s one of my biggest struggles. I’m never sure what it it appropriate to expect.