My theory is this: The more you avoid the crap, the more you're avoiding life in general. I mean, sure, you're protecting yourself from whatever bad things could happen, right? But, are you discluding yourself from things that could be good, too? I learned, I guess, to experience things as the come, live them, really go for it, whatever it is, and accept the potential bullshit that might come with it. Why protect myself? I lived through some really bad, life altering things, I'm pretty sure it won't get that bad, again, but if it does, it sure won't kill me. Bullshit builds character, as far as I'm concerned, as long as you learn to roll with it, and not let the details control you. Flexibility is key. If you can't flex and dance, then when life does throw shit at you, it will hit you like you were a brick wall. That kind of impact might be bad. I've let things hit me like that, and it's never healthy. I'm done with that. I've stopped avoiding life and it's pitfalls, a long time ago. I've learned to waltz with the bad stuff, and lead it around, and make it work for me.
Life is not a fixed path. Life is sorta forging your own path, with all it's twists, turns, piles of bear shit to trample through, etc. It's hard work, sometimes it stinks, and you get a lot of crap for your efforts, but in the long run, it's more satisfying, because you know you really did something. It can be a strange, and beautiful journey, too, if you pick your head up and look around, really enjoy it, instead of getting hung up, waiting, for possible pitfalls.
[Listening to: Dead Emotion - Paradise Lost - (4:33)]
2 comments:
Well, I don't think poorly of people who try to avoid shit. Shit isn't exactly a predictable element. You may get through it fine, or better off than you were to start with, which is cool. There are also times where the shit fucks you so roundly you're incapacitated by it. Thus avoiding both varieties of shit is just plain smart.
A great deal of shit in life is wholly unavoidable. There is a wise saying that goes "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it". This is mostly true, my family has been thrown quite a few hard balls in the recent past, with my Dad being injured for 6 months due to a motorcycle accident, and my mom being very sick, as usual.
The compound shit from these two occurances could have shredded my family to bits, causing all kinds of misery and additional bullshit. We didn't let it. We tried not to lose patience with each other, and also tried to make it as easy on one another as possible, We aren't better for having gone through this on the whole, but we also aren't a whole lot worse off.
Another key to coping with shit is just plain inertia. if you keep moving, eventually things will get better. "like all things, this too will pass". This strategy requires a lot of patience, which more and more Americans seem to be lacking these days. We are also greedy, but most of us don't look for the advantages in bad situations.
I am starting to tangent off here, so I'm going to call it good. I hope this is relevant :)
I agree, that it's all about how you deal with it, and I hope I didn't come off as 'thinking pooly' of people who try to avoid it. I think, I was mainly just puzzling about, like HOW it's avoidable. I don't think it is, and that's why I blogged. My whole thing was that shit's unavoidable. Dealing with the shit is a whoooole 'nother entry, well, that you pretty much covered :) I agree, though.
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