This BLEEP is Hard
This BLEEP is hard, and by BLEEP, I mean life. There is no question we run into conflict, misinterpretation, misreadings, misjudgment, misconception all the time… am I missing any mis-es? The human brain is ripe for failure and dysfunction. It’s like a fast-moving computer that stores information about as well as… a bag of cats? Monkeys starting out in an experiment? Just imagine an animal trying to figure out where to put something important to use again later and that’s essentially what the human brain is doing, because we are essentially very “sophisticated” animals. I use the word sophisticated pretty loosely here, considering I often think humanity considers itself pretty important, when meanwhile we are all akin to bears dancing in a circus wearing tutus.
And I must say, I think it’s the assumption that we should be better at this or more sophisticated that gets us into trouble.
My God, we have opposable thumbs and invented the computer, why doesn’t my wife understand me when I do BLANK?
Jesus, we put a man on the moon, so why can’t I keep it together when someone cuts me off in traffic?
Talking about achieving enlightenment is a little bit like encouraging all of us to act like robots. An enlightened being is detached from outcomes and the pleasures of the flesh - food, sex, love really shouldn’t matter to someone living in spirit, or that’s what many mystics say. But walking around just existing without attachments is also similar to acting like an animal. While animals clearly feel pain and many (but interestingly, not all) foster connections with their offspring, they are also used as good examples of how to achieve enlightenment, living in the NOW in ways human yogis could only dream of. But animals also fight over territory, BLEEP with abandon, and kill each other over food. So, which is it? Be like robots, be like animals, just don’t be… human?
Perhaps the goal is to be like water, as some self-help gurus reaching as far back as the Tao Te Ching recommend. Hold up, you want me to be like a transparent, tasteless, odorless, non-sentient fluid?
My point here is that there are a lot of expectations and recommendations for getting life right, for doing better and feeling better and being better. The list of religious rules and rituals is abundant, resplendent, and absurd. And nobody really knows what the right answer is, which is why I feel at liberty to talk about starting small. Real small.
Do you believe in Good and do you feel worthy of it?
Sadly, for some, the answer is NOPE on both counts. There are some of us out there that actually do not believe that Good exists nor do they feel worthy of having Good things happen to them. That is some dark BLEEP, if you think about it. And our culture encourages us to go there. Modern media talks about bad times all the time. That messaging alone makes it easy to turn a critical eye on life, ourselves, each other. It’s the opposite of rose-colored glasses. It’s BLEEP-colored glasses. If the world is BLEEP, why imagine we are destined for anything else?
It turns out that the world is very much not BLEEP. It is lovely and complex and vibrant. It is full, chockfull, of people doing Good for themselves and one another. Often when we allow ourselves to believe in that basic fact, then we start to do good for ourselves and each other, which builds on itself in a natural, expansive way, the same way a tree grows or a flower blooms. And just like we are allowed to believe in the basic fact that trees grow and flowers bloom, we are also allowed to believe in Good (and God), on a basic, important, fundamental level.
So, I will ask the question again, in a slightly different way: Do you believe in Good (or God) and do you believe you are worthy of it?