We’ve talked about the self-defeating nature of our Shit Avoidance Strategies, especially over the long term. Not that they’re totally, 100% bad; they can even be life-savers! But long-term, Shit Avoidance doesn’t help us rise to the challenges of life, fix the problems we’re facing, accomplish our meaningful goals, or grow as a person. At…
135) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 14: FACT Exercise #1 — Focusing
I’ll never forget the first time I looked at the moon through a telescope. I was in my early 30s, and after having looked at the moon regularly for three decades, it was like I was seeing it for the first time. The vague spots my eyes could see on their own were now cliffs…
134) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 13: Avoiding the Shit
The key problem with working on our healing, and improving our lives, is that we don’t like to feel shitty. And it does feel shitty to face the shitty-ness of a sub-optimal way of living. Especially if you’ve lived that way for quite a while. Ugh. So, we turn away from that shit. Or more…
133) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 12: You are strong enough
(TW: Description of Torture) Although there’s no denying that life can be hard and people can be saddled with more problems than they can bear, the truth is that most of us are nowhere near to living up to our potential. We know, in some private recess of our consciousness, that if push came to…
132) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 11: FACT cares about your feelings
As we talked about in Part 10 (post #124), Rational Self Analysis centers on clarifying for yourself Who You Really Are. What do you love doing? What interests or fascinates you? What are your values? What would you like to be doing in, say, 3 years? There are tons of “Who You Really Are” exercises…
131) Stranger Things, Part 5: Some wee critiques, and a suggestion; or Why Is Henry so Damn Evil???
I have two extremely minor critiques of Stranger Things, and one real “I hope they do better” critique. First, the minor ones. There is a profound inability of bad guys with guns to do much of anything effective (other than shooting Brenner from a helicopter with a sniper rifle, and the guard-dudes inside the house…
130) Stranger Things, Part 4: How the Great Evil will be defeated
So, how will the Great Evil finally be defeated? How will the heroes possibly prevail, as Hell gets unleashed on Earth? Dustin! One more drum roll, please…….. My best guess is that Vecna is going to rebel at a key moment, acting on some deeply buried vestige of his humanity which has retained a tiny…
129) Stranger Things, Part 3: The Master of Puppets
The true villain of Stranger Things isn’t Vecna, obviously. The Upside Down already existed when Henry fell into it, and he was initially terrified, thinking that he was dying. However, he was transformed into Vecna. Why? Presumably because he was already a super-powerful psychic dude, and he was psychotic, and he was willing to offer…
128) Stranger Things, Part 2: Eleven’s real “papa”
***SPOILER ALERT*** This contains mad spoilers for Stranger Things. If you haven’t watched it, don’t read this! * * * * * One of the enduring mysteries of the show is, WHO is Eleven’s true “papa”? Well….(Dustin! Drum roll please…..) ——— I think it’s Henry AKA Vecna AKA 001. I know, icky icky icky,…
127) Stranger Things, Part 1: I am finally cool (Plus, some Season 5 plot predictions)
I am finally cool. It took half a century, and I’m sure my newfound status as cool likely only extends to two people on the planet, but hey, I have finally joined the ranks. What a feeling! How did I attain this exalted status? Well, the other day, I was hanging with my kids, and…