If you’ve made it this far in life without a bag of tricks, then get one. But, remember, you get to be the one to fill it, and to decide what goes in it. If some whatsit doesn’t work, then you can spend time trying to master it to endless frustration, or you can just let it go and let someone else have it. No need for self-blame, defensiveness or explanations. It just didn’t fit in with everything else you have to carry.
Some tricks come to us fairly easily, and their secrets can be passed along freely. The big reveal is that if you’re still here, then you have learned how to recognize the ways and means that help you and those that don’t. That’s pretty much the essence of resourcefulness and trusting your instincts.
Here’s a trick I picked up from the movie, Big Fish, starring Ewan MacGregor and Albert Finney. As a kid, Edward Bloom takes a dare from friends to ask a local witch for a look into her glass eye. In it, a person will spy the moment of his own death. The other kids take in their fate with horror and dread. But Edward takes this foresight as a gift. He says:
“I was thinking about death and all, about seeing how you’re gonna die. I mean, on one hand, if dying was all you thought about, it could kind of screw you up… but it could kinda help, couldn’t it? Because everything else you knew you could survive.”
He then lives his life according to this principle, and when he’s in danger he reminds himself, “This isn’t how I go.”
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| Starry Night handprinted art glass by Harry and Leslie Besset found at Marblebert.com |
Well, we don’t have crystal balls or glass eyes to give us this confidence by way of foreknowledge, yet you can turn the idea into a different trick. Imagine, instead, that the glass eye will tell you not the manner of your death, but what will have the power to permanently break your spirit before that. And the eye shows you nothing. You can meet catastrophe upon disaster upon loss, and if you remind yourself, “This isn’t how I break”, then your spirit is safe with you.
If this notion doesn’t appeal to you, then just roll it along, and it can find its way into another bag that has been waiting for it to show up.
If you like tricks, you might like riddles, too:
"The Riddle" by Five for Fighting 2006
There was a man back in '95
Whose heart ran out of summers
But before he died, I asked him
Wait, what's the sense in life?
Come over me, come over me
He said,
Son, why you got to sing that tune?
Catch a Dylan song or some eclipse of the moon
Let an angel swing and make you swoon
Then you will see, you will see
Then he said,
Here's a riddle for you
Find the Answer
There's a reason for the world:
You and I
Picked up my kid from school today
Did you learn anything, cause in the world today
You can't live in a castle far away
Now talk to me, come talk to me
He said,
Dad, I'm big but we're smaller than small
In the scheme of things, well we're nothing at all
Still every mother's child sings a lonely song
So play with me, come play with me
And Hey, Dad
Here's a riddle for you
Find the Answer
There's a reason for the world:
You and I
I said,
Son, for all I've told you
When you get right down to the
Reason for the world:
Who am I?
There are secrets that we still have left to find
There have been mysteries from the beginning of time
There are answers we're not wise enough to see
He said, You looking for a clue? I love you free
The batter swings and the summer flies
As I look into my angel's eyes
A song plays on while the moon is high over me
Something comes over me
I guess we're big and I guess we're small
If you think about it man, you know we got it all
Cause we're all we got on this bouncing ball
And I love you free
I love you freely
Here's a riddle for you
Find the Answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I
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