Whatever…There are Consequences.

There were a couple of great lines from a book by Robert Fulghum that I’ve been trying to find for quite some time. Now that I’m done unpacking boxes, I finally found the book which is called “It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It”.

It’s from a story that he wrote where he went to a Japanese temple in order to learn how to become a holy man. It didn’t go well, and he wound up having a meeting with the master the temple.

I won’t go into the specifics or paste it all, but the story is pretty funny.

During the meeting, the master was talking to him about all his troubles, where the final one was despairing over the quality of the lazy young fools who want to be priests nowadays (our author). He told the aspiring monk (the author) “sometimes I think I would like to get a little place in Hawaii and just play golf for the rest of my life”

I get that.

“It was this way before I was ‘enlightened’, You know. And now it is the same after enlightenment.”

A long pause while he silently gave me time to consider his words and actions.

Rising, he motioned me to follow him to the entrance alcove of the temple, and we stood before an ancient scroll I had often passed. He said it was time for me to go home, where he felt I had been “a thirsty man looking for a drink and all the while standing knee-deep in a flowing stream.” Yes.

Then he read the words of the scroll slowly, first in Japanese and then carefully translated into English:

There is really nothing you must be,
and there’s nothing you must do.
There’s really nothing you must have,
And nothing you must know.
There is really nothing you must become.
However, it helps to understand that fire burns, and when it rains, the earth gets wet…

“Whatever, there are consequences. Nobody is exempt” said the master.
With a wink, he turned and walked away, carefully scratching his backside.

First great line is being a thirsty man looking for a drink all the while standing knee-deep in a flowing stream. This is roughly equivalent of saying you had the ruby slippers on the whole time, Dorothy. I’ve used this line a few times. It really resonated with me lately as I found myself thinking about doing something stupid in my personal life. It caused me to look around and notice that I got it good. I’m happy and at peace. Why am I looking at trouble that’ll surely find me soon enough anyway?

In the second one is “Whatever, there are consequences. No one is exempt.” Translated into today’s speak, its a nice way of saying FAFO. No such thing as a free lunch. Gas, Grass, or Ass, no one rides for free.

There consequences to everything we do, even if we don’t see them right away. Ripple effects that are utterly lost to those without self reflection.

This is all over the place in our culture today. Tick-tock is replete with women who did something stupid and having to find out and live with those consequences. I’m sure guys are like that too but we generally don’t get on tick-tock and moan about it.

Both of these lines help me be much more circumspect in my activities.