I began my morning walk, with emotions soaring over the rainbow. The skies were blue, the sunshine warm, and the Mockingbird Five were performing live at the Brunswick Welcome Center. I was feeling fine, better than fine--the word is hiding from me right now; begins with an 'E'.
Then, little by little, I felt my mood slipping. I began to worry that my daily inventory was going to be disappointing. I felt that I'd stepped out onto what I've heard called, the slippery slope.
Genome, you say to yourself, what is happening to you?
Well, it's no mystery, my friend. It may border on tragic and it may be heartbreaking. But it's no mystery. It began when a well-meaning friend, one who cannot leave well enough alone, suggested that I might benefit from those martial arts exercises you see advertised everywhere.
My people-pleasing nature caused me to consent and before you could say lower dantien, I was enrolled in classes taught by Asian ambassadors for martial arts in America. My personality began to change. I became like one of those self-absorbed young men you see in TikTok videos.
After a few weeks, I was no longer quiet and calm. I became hearty and talkative even at the breakfast table, driving Ms. Wonder to distraction, perhaps to tears if I’m completely honest. I often boast to her of having been out with the dog walkers for a bracing walk hours before she awoke. Nothing to it, of course. I probably got up when she was in the bath, if I'm honest. But I feel that I should say something to let her and others too know that I’m working to improve myself.
If you think that's bad, better sit down. Throughout the day I sashay about town with a brisk, even jaunty, step. I greet everyone with a boisterous Good morning! I shake hands, I slap backs, and I'm generally a nuisance to almost everyone I encounter.
Naturally, this behavior has lost me a great many friends. But far worse has been the effect on my moral fiber. Although I like to think of myself as a mild and inoffensive man, I fear that Nature, the silly ass, has given me a ready wit and a short fuse. Whenever I find myself with a difference of opinion, and I do find myself in such situations more often than is probably healthy, I can’t help but think of a snappy remark or superb comeback. I sometimes decide it's a great pity to let it go to waste.
Brooding intensely over this troubling matter, and relying on my systems analysis skills, I’ve developed a program of spiritual exercises designed to improve the soul so that it keeps pace with the self-assertiveness. I like to think of it as keeping self and spirit aligned.
The key to success for this new system is to a mindfulness technique I mastered long ago coupled with the philosophy known as Twee (look it up). Imagine that you’re performing the kung fu hurricane kick. If you can’t imagine doing it, then imagine me doing it. Works just as well.
Now as you lift the leg above the waist and swirl around toward the opponent, instead of thinking about driving your foot through his head, you think instead of the dictum that all creatures have co-evolved on the earth and that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights and among these are the right to enjoy life, freely as Nature intended, in pursuit of our needs and desires.
Having completed this exercise, you stand in the horse position, hands crossed at the lower dantien, and say the following words: I offer myself to you totally, good and bad, to do with, to make with what you will.
Doesn’t matter who you’re offering yourself to; the words simply set the intent to get out of your own way.
Ecstatic! That's the word I was looking for. Sorry for the interruption. The word just popped into my head and I wanted to be sure to get it on record.
Space forbids a complete list of my new spiritual exercises, but I'm preparing a small illustrated booklet, found on the advertising pages. The portrait included here is taken from the booklet and shows me immersed in mindful Twee.
You'll notice immediately a sort of rapt, seraphic expression in my eyes and a soft and spiritual suggestion of humility about the mouth. A big difference in my demeanor and the offensively preoccupied expression you see in most of the public today, don’t you think?
I hope my experience will benefit you as you travel your own self-improvement path. Remember, my friend, it's a wide, wild, wind-blown world we’re riding through but you don't have to let it blow your skirts up. Fierce Twee!