Mild Language Warning: Get This Straight

Straight Up, Meerkat

I’ve seen some shit. If you manage to walk this earth long enough to be actively conscious about your surroundings, you have, too. It is the nature of things. The material world is, by its nature, a heaping pile of experiential excrement. I could rattle off a long list of personal experiences and things I’ve witnessed, but what’s the point? By the time you got to the first period in this paragraph, you were already thinking, “You haven’t seen anything like the shit I’ve seen!” Time for some straight talk. Comparing scars in an attempt to prove whose are worse? That is some stupid shit that solves nothing.

Straight Up: You Are Right

I have not seen shit comparable to what you’ve seen. Your experiences are almost certainly far worse than anything I’ve been through. You were there, in the thick of it. It is very personal and cuts extremely deep. I will never fully comprehend what you have been through. I never can. Why? Because I am not you. I did not grow up in the same environment as you. I arguably didn’t even grow up in the same environment as my siblings. The only real reason to stand high on your personal pile of shit is to cast blame on everyone with a short pile of shit for the amount of shit upon which you stand. Again, solves nothing.

Full Of It

The bottom line is, whether you want it or not, you deal with a lot of shit. We all do. Your personal experiences neither validate nor invalidate anyone else’s experiences. Nothing about your shit can or should make me feel okay with any amount of shit. None of us should be okay with our shit. Why? Because it is all shit! None of us should have to deal with this shit. That’s exactly why we call it shit.

So, What Do We Do?

Stop throwing shit at each other. It is no fun cleaning up shit. That’s true whether it is your shit, my shit, or their shit. Everyone knows shit exists. Yes, there are shitty people who do shitty things and who deserve to have shit thrown at them. That doesn’t mean it is okay to throw your shit at shitty people. Shitty people will not suddenly become non-shitty. They’ll just change the method with which they throw their shit. Throwing shit at shitty people just gives them more reason to be shitty. Convincing them to throw it at someone else doesn’t clean up your shit, either. In fact, it kind of makes you a shitty person for validating the throwing of shit at someone else.

Put another way, hate breeds hate. Stop that shit.

Whatever ordeals you’ve have to deal with, there is really only one way anyone can help. If you truly want things to change, you should respond appropriately. Like shit, there is a single word that encapsulates a large, often overwhelming concept. It is the one thing everyone wants, deserves, and should be offered, but we let all the world’s shit get in the way. We would rather righteously polish turds than wash our hands. We so desire to own our shit in the best way possible that we forget to foster the one thing that makes the shit worth bearing.

Straight Up: Love

Love one another.

Yes, the world will still be full of shit. That is its nature. But we don’t have to wallow in it. We certainly don’t have to keep throwing it at each other. We will never be able to pick up all the shit, but we can do a far better job of doing our best without shitting on each other.

Yeah, I get it. I’m no George Carlin. I love that guy’s shit.

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