Size and Shape Matter

I am roughly 6'2", but with a 32" inseam. This makes me Torsoman. It has also put my waist at a level with doorknobs, railings, banisters, and fences of all kinds. I was reminded of this cruel deformity again today when I began to descend a stairway with my arms full of laptop computer stuff. My non tucked-in t-shirt caught the top of the banister and nearly pulled me over backwards. Yes, I'm clumsy to begin with, but the problem is exacerbated by the height of things relative to me. I have yanked out more belt loops in pants, and suffered more rips in shirts and pants and popped buttons than probably anyone you know. No big deal. No great cross to bear. But my hang-up this morning did get me thinking about other people's hang-ups. Why do lots of bad things happen to some people and few to others? Why do some people experience relatively care-free lives and others find complication and trouble at nearly every turn? Now, I realize this situation, like everything else, is on a bell curve and I'm talking mainly about standard deviants. But bell curves are only a representation of reality. They tell us nothing about why a reality exists, as I'm about to; and you are going to be reminded of the great thought experiments of Einstein that led to his theory of relativity, and further reminded of his brilliance relative to mine.

I know stupid wealthy people. I know brilliant destitute people. I know people who seem to experience a great deal of  bad luck, and others who seem to attract mainly good things to themselves. It is human nature to assume, as so many of the fortunate do, that their skill and hard work got them where they are. That they are receiving their just deserts. It is also often the unfortunate tendency of the unlucky to feel stupid as well as unlucky. If they were only smarter, so many bad things wouldn't happen to them, or if they weren't so bad, stupid things wouldn't happen to them. Sometimes, of course, this is true; good, bad, and stupid things happen to people because they have acted well, poorly, or stupidly. But most of us have known brilliant-but-unlucky people, and stupid-but-charmed people. I have concluded that most of this is due to our psychic shape and size, the particular psychic doorknobs that our psychic shape and size cause us to get hung up on. And I also have concluded that, as with our bodies, this is largely a matter of how were made, how we were formed, wired, how we came out of the psychic oven. In other words, quit overly congratulating and/or condemning yourself for your good or bad fortune. Sure, you're great, or stupid, or great and stupid, or ignominious and brilliant, or ignominious and stupid; but you don't deserve all of the credit or the blame.

I don't mean to deny that we experience an element of free will, or that some of us make difficult and conscious choices to improve ourselves in ways quite contrary to our nature. Others of us make asinine choices that harm our lives that are contrary to our nature. It happens. There are banisters, railings, doorknobs, low doorways, high door jams, jagged things, holes, bumps, accidents of birth, scalding hot or slick surfaces, poisons, moving things, falling things, projectiles of all descriptions, and people of ill will, all of which have an analog in the psychic world. There are also "get out of jail free" cards, winning lottery cards, right-place-at-the-right-time forces, kindnesses, doorways, and charms in the psychic world, much like a video game. Obviously there are more bad things than good, but which things we hook, bump into, fall into, discover, gain, and lose has largely to do with our psychic size and shape. It's not kismet, not fate, but size and shape that matters, and what we do or don't do in response to it. Size and shape, however, is entirely kismet, fate, luck of the draw, your card in the psychic lottery. You had no initial say over it.

But that's not the whole story. If we have been paying attention to our lives and notice that we are of a size and shape that seems to get hung up on various things, or that we have put on clothes (metaphorical cloths, of course) inappropriate to our size and shape and are therefore hooking and snagging a lot, it is our responsibility as conscious, moral agents (if we are fortunate to be of that psychic size and shape, and most of us are) to act upon this knowledge. For instance, maybe I should keep my shirt tucked in, or be aware of my foolishness and not overreach for that speculative investment that will bankrupt me. Maybe you are fortunate, created or received wealth, of a cheerful disposition, and good health. All of this has only partly to do with you. Congratulations on having the psychic size and shape that hooks, trips over, and stumbles into good things. This should be very humbling, incline you toward gentleness and generosity with those of us with a less fortunate psychic morphology. And if you are hooked, tripped-up, knocked over (etc.) by unfortunate things, go easier on yourself. It isn't all you; but it isn't all "the man" either. Figure out your psychic shape, wear appropriate clothing, and work with all of it the best you can. Beyond that, well, both shit and blessings happen.