"SO WUT"
... personalized California license plate on a dark chocolate
brown 1972
Mercedes-Benz
450SEL sedan owned by
Werner Erhard
("SO WHAT"
was taken)
"The most terrifying fact about
the universe
is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent."
... Stanley Kubrick
"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you
off."
... Gloria Steinem
This essay,
It Comes Right After "So What?!",
is the fourth in a septology inspired by the distinction
Empty And Meaningless:
There's
a moment
everyone's gone through - that is, everyone who's experienced the onset
of transformation in their lives. Going through
this moment
is analogous to going through a travel hub (if you will): you have to
go through it en route (so to speak) to transformation - much like
Dallas / Fort Worth
is a hub you have to go through en route to wherever your destination
is (especially if you
flyAmerican
Airlines). It's said
if you want to get to heaven,
you have to change planes in Dallas.
You could also think of
this moment
as a terminus. That's where an old way of life ends. Indeed it
may work better to think of
this moment
as a terminus and not as a hub after all. What's the difference between
thinking of it as a hub and a terminus? It's this: the onward journey
from a hub is known, even pre-planned, but if there's going to be an
onward journey from a terminus, you have to
recalibrate,
re-choose, and intend it newly.
The moment
I'm talking about is when you realize that even with all the heartache
and pain, even with all the drama and melodrama, even with all the
unrealized aspirations, dashed hopes, disappointments, and snot en
trane (Afrikaans for "snot and tears"), none of it
means anything, that there's no significance
to any of it - in a phrase, it's when you realize it's all
empty and
meaningless.
That's truly a hard sell for us humans beings, especially given that we
crave
meaning and significance
even more than we crave oxygen. I mean, look at us: for
how many millennia have we engaged in the search for the
meaning of life? (spoiler alert: there is none).
Coming from wisdom, there's a certain mature response to almost any
complaint about life which is predicated on the insinuation that
whatever the complaint is about, means something - or
should mean something. It's a response that cuts to the
chase of
life's emptiness and
meaninglessness.
That response is this:
"So What?!".
"So What?!"
is neither unkind nor callous although at first, it's likely to be
taken that way. What it is, is ruthlessly compassionate. It has
to be - else it's not getable. And to share with a meaning addict that
there's no resolution in meaning, requires ruthless compassion - just
as sharing with an alcoholic that there's no resolution in alcohol,
requires ruthless compassion. With ruthless compassion, it's getable
even if it's met with incredulity,
disbelief,
resistance,
or anger. But as it sinks in,
a moment of
transformation
comes. It's a gateway to (and the possibility of) being powerfully
creative in the face of
emptiness and
meaninglessness,
the erstwhile showstopper.
Look into your experience, and you'll see
such a moment.
It comes right after
"So What?!".
What was there for you immediately after the first time someone wise
said to you
"So What?!"?
What was there for you just after you realized (with likely chagrin)
that
"So What?!"
was ruthlessly compassionate, even
kind?
I assert what was there for you was a new space, a new opening for
action, a new possibility. What you saw was the possibility of being
transformed against the background of
life's emptiness and
meaninglessness,
the erstwhile showstopper. And life being the way it is, the choice was
yours to make, when and even if you
stepped up
to it at all.