Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Considering the Concept of Catharsis or Don't Go All "Pet Cemetery" About the Dead Stuff

     So I've been thinking about the idea of catharsis lately. You know, looking at old things, sometimes painful things, right in the face and poking at 'em a bit to see what pokes back. I think the older I've gotten the more I've learned to live without this whole "process". This could simply be that I am too tired to invest any sort of real energy to this sort of "disinterment". Energy that could be better used washing underwear and cooking dinner (not necessarily in that order, and definitely not together).

     Or it could just be....wait for it...wait for it...that I've just gotten more mature (audible gasp). I have also noticed the older I get, the exponentially slower I am to be offended. I would like to chalk this up to growing up, but I have to admit there's also a healthy dose of just not wanting to have one more thing on my plate that needs to be cleaned up. So, the question is...Is the "exhumation and examination" (as a fellow philosopher has dubbed it) of the past a good & healthy thing (which, goes without saying, is not as enjoyable as a "Good and Plenty" thing...mmmm yummm...good and plenty's ...uh, sorry.) or is it, instead,  just a bunch of self-indulgent moments peppered with alotta  touchy-feely big words?

     Well, like every other doggone thing in the world, there is no easy answer (with the notable exceptions being: dating your girlfriends ex-boyfriend; whether to bring your babies to a rated "R" movie; or eating any, and I do mean any, sort of meat that has been left in a hot car all day. The answer to all of these is Always, ALWAYS, NO!).

     So, I guess it's a balancing act. If your need to unearth and open up the past is so great that it has you having imaginary (possibly ranting) conversations with yourself (what..don't act like you don't do it too), then maybe this is a good time to hand it to God and walk away. Let Him worry about the fixing and mending, and you just be about the business of living right now...here and now.  Stop mucking around in the pigpen slop pit of yesterday (Cause, honestly, have you ever driven by a pig farm? You need a cauterizing iron and a HAZMAT spray down to get that stench off of ya, and who wants to walk around giving off that odor?) and maybe just Let It Lie, Lucy (for now, anyhow, hmm?).  I guess I've gotten to the point that when I most feel like I need that "catharsis" is the exact time I should walk away from it and give it to God, and later (sometimes much much later; and possibly never) God will deliver the "catharsis" to me...long after I've actively accepted that the only doggone thing I need for comfort and healing is Him. 

     However, if you have way more than moved on, and catharsis comes to pay a call, I say...let it in, brew a cup-a and settle in for a gracious but candid visit.  You need the candor because graciousness by itself isn't gonna cut the mustard.  In the interest keeping things all nicey, nicey; graciousness may only exhume a work of revisionist historical fiction that probably isn't all that true to the original story.  And where would that get ya but a whole lotta no where.  And graciousness?  Well you need that because we could all stand to be a wee bit more forgiving,  loving and kind to one another, don't you think?

     The real trick is to just remember to give that long dead stuff a proper RE-burial and send it all back from whence it came.  Because, while a little sojourn in the past is okay (and maybe even fairly purgative), the here and now is where we should be camping out to make our tomorrows.

     Oh and PS...I do soooo love my Good and Plenty's...they leave this ghoulish white and black gunk on your tongue that you're just not gonna find anywhere else...what's not to love!! :)

4 comments:

  1. My my it must be the time & season for this. Ecclesiastecal, is that a proper word?).. I say Amen good woman! Here too! We're movin on with or without but welcome to come at any point just leave the past behind most of the while, long motto but there it is. Thanks Andrea..VIcki M

    ReplyDelete
  2. I believe I walked one too many times in the pigpen...next time I'll think before I step in the muck....

    Lurve,
    your sissy ( who is logged on under you)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well stated. Keep writing. You have a way with words and a good blend of humor and painful reality.

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks dude...I always find the really funny stuff kind of painful...if you're laughing hard enough and the painful stuff a little funny on the back end of it all. :)

    ReplyDelete