The Sh!t: To Do Or To Be

People who I consider deep thinkers have many characteristics in common, but one that fascinates me to no end is their shared experience of an unexplainable, undefinable moment. I know this already, sounds not only vague and woo-woo like, but I assure you, it isn't magic juju. The most successful, brilliant, out-of-the-box thinkers have all had "experiences" -- moments that helped them see beyond their senses -- that shaped their direction, choices, attitude, or outlook. With that shift in energy and perspective, they went on to do great things. In times of discouragement, they drew upon those experiences to give them strength to pursue their path.

For right now, I'm going to call that experience, "The Sh!t" (here, I'm using an exclamation point to symbolize the "i", turning a slang word for fecal matter into a metaphysical signifier for that uncommon, and often unrepeatable, experience). In contrast to "the shits", which refers to having repeated loose stools in rapid succession,"The Sh!t" is a welcomed phenomenon, though perhaps poorly understood.

Take a look at this video from Youtube. This is a perfect example of "The Sh!t", even if the viewer suspects the man behind the camera has ingested some magic mushrooms:



What should you do when you are facing "The Sh!t"? One of my former graduate school professors used to remind people to stop getting so worked up about "doing", and focus more on "being". I don't think he was on any mushrooms while he said this, but he would constantly point to the merits of "going with the flow", "being in the stream", "riding the wave", and other terms we commonly share for letting what's happening "do its thing" without our resistances kicking in and shutting "The Sh!t" down.

"Being" isn't an excuse for laziness. The truth of "being" includes being alive and awake to what is happening, just like the man shouting in the video, "What does it mean?" Being is an active process, not a passive one. Laziness is not active; laziness is a state of half-sleep while events happen, yet without interest or reaction from the person. The lazy person defaults to either apathy or lack of appreciation, even though the "being" person may also appear to be doing nothing on the surface. The difference is observation. Though the man behind the camera does not get an audible answer to his question, he simply stays with the moment, laughing, appreciating the beauty, sobbing, and then coming back into equanimity with "what is".

My friend Bill calls these "shifts" [though I had thought of them as epiphanies]. Shifts include energy, motivation, and attitudinal movements that occur inside of our thought processes, and maybe physically in our bodies [though perhaps we have no way to measure it except in things like heart rates and body extremity temperatures). When a shift occurs, we are freed from the stifling heat of our own wearying thoughts, fears, and paranoia.

We may find the video "Double Rainbow" funny (and that is the category it is listed under for Youtube), but I'm also caught with my own experience of "The Sh!t", and I can assure you, there were no mood-altering substances involved! When I watched "Double Rainbow", I found myself laughing at his goofy remarks, and then suddenly uncomfortable. I knew I was watching something of a very private, vulnerable moment, and one that I have experienced so many times before. One can laugh it off as a joke, or one can also grapple with the complexity of an existential moment bearing down on the shoulders of a man, and wondering how his mind didn't just snap under the pressure.

I am fairly confident for the number of "The Sh!t" moments I've had in my lifetime G-d/Life/The Universe is sure to throw me a few more of those. Will I -- and will you-- know how to "be" with "The Sh!t", or like many things we do in our tech savvy world, simply ignore it in the waterfall of unending content we see every day? Will you chuckle and chalk these kinds of experiences up to things that we make up for silly Youtube videos? Or will you open your eyes to "The Sh!t" and let it take you into Being, while taking you on a rip-roaring ride towards greater creativity and more passion for connection?

Your choice.



For those of you who couldn't get enough of the "Double Rainbow" effect, take a look at this KFC parody "The Doublelicious", also from Youtube: