The box

The box is a little exercise that is taught at corporate workshops by motivational speakers.

Here’s how it works. You draw a box with 9 dots, like so:



* * *

* * * Oops graphics a funky here, spread these dots out

* * * into a box


Now, you need to draw 4 straight lines that go through all 9 dots, with out lifting the pen.

DON’T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU WISH TO FIGURE THIS GAME OUT ON YOUR OWN…THE ANSWER WILL BE REVEILED!

I learned the box in a workshop called Lifespring, which is like EST or the Forum, basically workshops designed to suck you dry of all finances, and brain wash you into getting as many of your friends and family involved as possible, under the guise of self improvement.

The leader of the workshop drew out the dots and asked us to try and draw the 4 straight lines with out lifting the pen that went through all the dots.

Eventually I got up and did this….
. :

2 . :

* * *
. 4 :
* * . *
. . : 1 Sorry folks I tired to add graphics
. . * . * . *
3

(draw a line up the right side and out of the box, then a diagnal line hitting the top second dot and first dot of the second line and extended out of the box as well, then a line across the bottom, and finally a diganal line hitting the ramaining dots.)

You have to go beyond the box of 9 dots to be able hit them all…thus “think outside the box.” It’s about creative problem solving.

Well, the leader was pissed off. She grilled me and insisted that I had done the exercise before. I didn’t, I just figured it out, cause I’m a fucking genius!

What is the box and why are people trying to think outside of it?

Example one;



Example two;



Example three;



Example four;

Belly Laugh

I’m trying to remember. It is usually with Jen that I have a deep laugh. And it’s usually about a pussy that we're laughing about. Was that the deep belly laugh.?

The last time I laughed so hard that I thought I was going to die was with Jen. We were at Dany's standing by her living room window. I was telling her about my brothers and sister saying what things belong to them when Mom dies. My sister said something about the dishes. My brother wants the silver rimmed crystal that were my grandmothers.

Jen must have said something like, did they really say that shit at a holiday dinner, and we went off on a deep laugh. I couldn’t breath and I thought that I was going to die for sure. The thought passed my mind, “I can’t breathe. Oh my god, I am really going to die right now, I’m going to die laughing!!”

I know that I’ve had some good laughs with her since, and they are usually about our pussy joke. We do this totally stupid thing that makes us laugh. We call each other up singing songs to each other, but replace a key word with "pussy", or sometimes "cock". For example, "OH PUSSY, YOU'RE SO FINE, YOU'RE SO FINE YOU BLOW MY COCK, HEY PUSSY!" It makes us laugh hysterically. Others? Not so much. Guess pussy/cock humor is an acquired taste.

But this other time, we had just come out of the movie "No Country for Old Men". We were talking about how they had absolutely no music in the film.

Jen insisted that there was something. I said, “maybe a strum of a guitar and a poohweeoohweeooh” and at the exact moment we passed a dog poohing! Forget it, we just totally lost it. Now, we sometimes just say poohieeoooohieeeooooooo! Like an old cowboy movie, or…a dog shitting. This still makes me laugh, even as I write it.

Warning: Serious Bitterness, read at your own risk

Guidance requires action, but it does not guarantee safety. --Carolyn Myss ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT

Oh, this is something that scares me. I feel offended, almost defensive when I read this quote. First I think, you said this wrong, it should be ACTION RQUIRES GUIDANCE. But it’s inverted, guidance requires action. What the fuck does that mean Ms. Myss?

Why does this quote piss me off so much? Maybe because of, what seems to me, a purposeful conundrum. I hate new age spiritual babble…In To Me U See. Fuck you Carolyn Myss!

This is weird, because I usually like her. I usually like what she has to say. But I HATE this quote.

Why? Well, Guidance requires action. Does it really? This seems almost imbecilic! It’s like saying eating requires digestion. Of course, guidance requires one asking for help, and someone else helping or teaching or supporting. I would rather this said, “Guidance requires care, but does not guarantee safety” I prefer that, but one day if I have my own “spiritul” book with clever sayings that make people like DeepPockets Chopra rich, then I can say what ever I want.

The "does not Guarantee safety" is actually the best part of this quote. Safety is never guaranteed. That is true. Life happens, anything can happen at anytime. Safety is not guaranteed.

But I can’t help but think this is a statement in a contract avoiding some liability for some kind of physical activity. The roller skating rink, ski resort, bunji jumping company can not be held accountable if you get injured.

Apparently neither can Carolyn Myss.

I had no idea how bitter my 3rd chakra can be.

Another Quote

Funny, I was going to put this up yesterday, but I thought, it's not mine...but since quotes are appearing, here's a good one:

"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you aught to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and thy open the doors to you. I say follow your bliss and don't be afraid and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."

Joseph Campbell THE POWER OF MYTH

If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.

Anonymous, often attributed to Dan Quayle
- More quotations on: [Failure]
Most people would rather be certain they're miserable than risk being happy.

-Robert Anthony

Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.
-Walter Anderson

It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.

-Philip Adams

- More quotations on: [Confidence] [Risk]
To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
_ I forget

Follow your bliss, It's hit or miss, catch a wave, may be your lucky day.
Follow your heart, it's time to start,
roll the dice pick a card throw a dart.
-wooden thomas

Through the eyes of the world

I see an energetic and enthusiastic being. I see his boldness and courage. I see his humor, wit, and sarcasm. I see where he stops and is blocked. I see his resistance. He doesn’t like to be told what to do. He arches his back, and his face moves back in disgust. Don’t try to push him too hard, or he won’t budge.

He is at the center. He is different with different people. He is morpholicious. He actually becomes the energetic response to whoever is with him. He is a dancer. He often has no self . Who is that man, just himself, with no influence?

Oh, I see him, a shining golden being of compassion. He is a bodhisatva, though he hasn’t fully realized it yet. He is an eternal clown, heyoki spirit for change. He is compassion and love and joy and good humor. He is fierceness and truth, and boldness. He’s a fucking superhero!

He is a man, like any other. Human being, with given circumstances and such. His gifts are musical, rhythmical, oracle, hysterical. He has a lot to offer, in a little time. He sometime fritters away.

He can be lazy and stubborn. He can be closed and argumentative. He can be an instigator and enabler, he can be a rebel and iconiclaster.

But he is always Chris. He is always the same. He is that giggling, curious, investigating, philosophical, magical man.