Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Never Thought I Could Dig Feng Shui

I am examining my thoughts, evaluating them, re-ordering and re-wiring them to achieve a new and improved approach to life.
You establish thought patterns over a lifetime, you take in a certain amount of information, you miss out on a lot more information, you develop opinions, which are always dangerous because they tend to get set in stone, and there you have a blueprint for negotiating your life.
Extremely limited.
I am trying to redirect the firing of neurons, send them off in different directions and at different speeds. Even trying to delay the firing of neurons in situations of automatic, conditioned-over-time response.
I am shooting for Feng Shui of my mind.
I used that phrase to make a point. I hate that phrase. I hate it because it embodies the phony way Americans co-opt something mystical and try to make it their own, failing miserably.
Feng Shui is a complex body of knowledge that reveals how to balance the energies of any given space to assure the health and good fortune of the people inhabiting it.
Does this sound like a concept that can easily be grasped by money hungry interior decorators?
NO.
People who use that term use it because it sounds cool, not because they understand how it works. I don't even understand how it works and I just looked it up.
Feng means wind and Shui means water. In Chinese culture, wind and water are associated with good health. Feng Shui is based on the Taoist vision and understanding of nature, particularly the idea that the land is alive and filled with Chi, or energy. The ancient Chinese believed that the land's energy could either make or break the kingdom.
Do you actually believe that if you rotate your f***ing couch 45 degrees you have achieved Feng Shui? All you have done is minimize the chance that you will break your toe the next time you stagger drunkenly across the living room in the dark.
The Chinese develop a philosophy over the course of centuries that ties into life and health and peace, and we take it, trivialize it and beat it to death on HGTV.
As I was writing this it occurred to me that the term makes more sense as applied to the re-wiring of my mind than it ever could as applied to the moving of furniture.
So yeah, I am shooting for Feng Shui of my mind. I will proudly shout this philosophy from the rooftops.
Walmart tells me to save money and live better. I think they are off the mark. My plan is to think better to live better.
Might even grow another Fu Manchu. Had a killer one as a teenager that my grandmother almost ripped off my face.
Grew another one about 15 years ago that looked ridiculous.
But this time I got Feng Shui working for me.

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