Ever found a hair in your soup? Nothing wrong with the hair, it’s just in the wrong place.
“Everything is good in its right place and right relationship,” says Satish Kumar, “nothing is bad.” So it would follow that shoes on your feet are good, but in a washer…?
It might look something life this:
Characters: SHOE, Tee and Sock
Setting: a washing machine door stands open. Sock and Tee have been tossed inside, ready for their routine clean. At the last moment SHOE is flung in, rebounds off the back wall with a dull thud and lands atop the malodorous pile. SHOE scans the scene, certain there must have been some kind of horrible mistake.
SHOE: Whoa, sorry, wrong room. Don’t think I’m meant to be here
Tee: It’s OK. No worries. I remember that feeling too.
SHOE: I don’t feel comfortable here AT ALL. There’s nowhere to stand.
Sock: Oh, you’ll be fine. You’ll see. Just look like you know what you’re doing.
SHOE: But I don’t know what I’m doing! How will I make it through in one piece?
Tee: Well, be open, flexible. Go with the flow. We’re all in it together.
Sock: Yeah, just think about how great you’ll feel when it’s all over. Kind of like your day job.
Water enters the drum. Sock and Tee giggle in the bubbles. SHOE gasps for air.
Tee: Hey SHOE, quit struggling. Remember, you have no control.
Sock: Yeah, give into it man else there’ll be some pretty serious damage to that sole. Your choice.
SHOE: Why’s this happening to me? Life is so unfair!
Bumping and bouncing off the walls SHOE grumbles about the gross mistreatment of all shoes everywhere. Disgusted that a highly revered and costly product could be exposed to such malicious malpractice.
Just when it seems things can’t get any worse, the SPIN cycle kicks in. SHOE panics. Grasping loosened laces, SHOE holds on tight and prays for it all to be over, and soon
Like SHOE, we have all been a right thing in a wrong place or relationship.
The question is, how do we make it through without permanent damage? Unwilling to accept the situation leaves us, like wreckage, seriously bent out of shape. Absorbing the reality and allowing it a place in every future path is the only way through. Never easy. But all part of the journey.
Satish Kumar teaches internationally on reverential ecology, holistic education and voluntary simplicity. He has been recognized globally for his promotion of Ghandian values.
Ha! I agree-the mistakes are part of the path. Love the being-tossed-around metaphor. Something definitely to take further there.
Actually, I suspect we're always being tossed, but often are in denial/oblivious to it. I think shopping, TV watching, online gambling, etc. are all reflexive ways of numbing ourselves to the fact. The behaviors kick in so fast we aren't even aware of the purpose they serve.