Witnessing Other People's Storms

Ok. Cool. But I have a question!

What if someone feels they're "experiencing a storm" when they're just sitting under a drainpipe? What if the Storm isn't really a storm? Is it "mindful" to point it out? Or would that be "judgement", exacerbating the pain and anguish?

I know the response: I have cherry-picked an extreme case of exaggerated foolishness.

But no. It's always exaggerated foolishness. Without exception. There are no storms. Not one. And I may even convince you, if you'll read just a few more paragraphs.

If someone walked into your room right now brandishing a gun, you wouldn't add it to your basket of woes. You would not frame it as a "storm", nor would it soak your spirit. It would not feel like yet another burden to bear. None of that. Zero. Zilch. Nada. You'd attune your senses to the situation and handle it as best you can. You'd dive to the floor, you'd assess escape options, you'd weigh and re-weigh the wisdom of running for it. Maybe you'd handle it well, maybe not so well, but you'd handle it.

Once the gunman leaves, and you find yourself being interviewed by a cop or a doctor, that's when all that other stuff would start. When it's not an immediate problem.

Storms are what we manufacture during peaceful lulls. During actual storms, we're too occupied to frame them as storms. Real problems are handled, period. Manufactured problems are nursed and milked and stoked and widely proclaimed and hung on your chest as a glimmering token of glorious victimhood.

Only people without actual immediate problems have time to contrive drama. People with problems - actual problems - are busy working the problem. No time for drama.

If woeful drama is your bag, god bless you. We're all free to enjoy hobbies and idle pasttimes. But here's the thing. If so, don't involve me, because I'm precisely the hurtful villain you're memeing about, above. I'm your antagonist.

It's that I actually care, as only a fool can. So I will foolishly take you at your word, assuming you'd prefer a better result. Thinking you truly want to relieve your burden, I will inform you - very much from "the shelter of my own perspective"! - that you're sitting under a leaky pipe and there is no storm and your life is beautiful and the envy of all your ancestors. I am Beelzebub. I am The Evil One. I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. And, worst of all, per the quote above, I lack mindfulness. I truly do!

From "Truth is Like House Lights":

If you imagine that the truth really heals, the joke's on you. You’re like the lunatic in the audience who rushes to the stage to protect Caesar from the stabbing knives. There's no denying that falsehood would be thus dispelled, tragedy prevented, and the sham nature of the enterprise entirely illuminated. Good job on that. However, you'll have ruined the experience for all present.

The surprising completion of my line of thought is the blithe recognition that they're ENJOYING it! And it's fine! The meme is (unintentionally) right: don't judge! Let them enjoy starring in a sad movie in which they fraughtly bear the Storms with which they've been unjustly saddled. Don't ruin it! Play along! Politeness is in the pretending, so all this meme is saying is: be polite!

And I wonder why I have 25 readers.....


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