02/23/10 - One of my greatest childhood fears was swimming pools, or more specifically, water.  Like most kids on a hot summer day, I would rush to the local park and jump into the cool water of the wading pool, to begin the ritual youth dance of flailing about.  Having never been given formal lessons, the other kids would inevitably do something beyond my skill set - such as lying flat in the water and floating along as if by a miracle.

As we got a bit older, we started going to the adult pool- the kind that starts shallow but slopes into a deep end.  While the other kids would foray into the deep end or launch themselves off the diving board, I would stay in the shallow end, pretending I preferred hanging out there instead.

On one occasion, after a bit of heckling at my expense, I decided to walk confidently into the deep end, just to prove that I could do it.  This was not a wise decision.  Just as I had gotten shoulder deep, my foot slipped and I went under.  Panic and fear gripped me as water filled my nose and lungs.  A few moments later I was being pulled to the side of the pool, then lifted out.  Needless to say, air and ground good. Water bad.

It wasn’t until years later that I would come to terms with that dark abyss of chaos, also known as a swimming pool.  I did this by using it as a tool that could help me- by turning it into a metaphor. 

The birth of this metaphor occurred in high school, when I came to realize that an appalling amount of the information being taught was inaccurate and/or manipulated (Columbus discovered America?) and was being used as a tool to keep young minds sterile.  The very system by which we were being “educated” was in fact designed to shape us into programmable worker bees.  It was ridiculous how the school counselor would bring in “professionals” to tell us which careers would best suit our personalities, based on formulaic tests. I guess I would be a good pharmacologist (no disrespect to pharmacologists btw :-).

I knew then that if I were to find my path, it would have to be on my terms.  I decided to seek out a good metaphor by which to frame this new way of thinking, something that would charge me up and motivate me.  Almost immediately, the image of a wading pool came to mind- and so did all of my negative attachments to it.  I thought to myself, what a perfect place to start!  So I pictured all those kids who could lay flat and float in the water, which I was never able to do.  Something stood out in the picture.  They were all doing the same thing, like a sea of adolescent automatons.  I asked myself, what would happen if I joined them?  After picturing myself floating amongst them, it struck me how indiscernible I had become from the others.  What if I were floating face down? That would make it impossible for me to see everything going on in my environment. This is when the metaphor revealed itself.

I realized that the only thing I needed to do for relative success and happiness would be to resist the deep end and kneel or stand in the wading pool of mediocrity.  There it was.  While the masses would go about their everyday existence in that virtual wading pool of life- floating about, unaware of the world outside of the pool- I would simply do nothing more than get my feet wet (not a hard task, since I never learned to float in the first place).

The power in this metaphor helped me start my first business right after high school.
Its value lay in the fact that to kneel in a wading pool is easy, with no special knowledge or talent required.  What a great way to approach life, right?  If one has no fear or prejudgment about how hard something will be to do, then there’s really no roadblock to going balls out and trying.

Metaphors can be quite powerful insofar as they afford us the opportunity to shape our perceptions of what things truly mean.  From the mundane to the spiritual, we have the chance to create meaning and value and a multitude of other relationships associated with any given object, situation, concept or event.

My first business failed miserably.  Within a few months of starting a t-shirt business, my shirts were in Dayton’s and Hudson’s.  However, none of my shirts sold and I quickly went out of business (I’ll be sure to elaborate in a future article).  It would have been easy to feel dejected and tell myself, “oh well, I gave it a shot, time to get a real job,” but I decided to turn to my metaphor instead.  Just as learning to swim is a process, so is learning to kneel and stand.  I was convinced that my metaphor could be applied to how easy something could be if we choose to not give in to prejudgment and defeat.  Soon after that first business attempt, I tried again- after asking myself some tough questions about why I had failed and what I needed to do differently this time around.

I have to confess that this metaphor, which had helped in shaping my ideas of business and career choices, did have some major flaws.  These flaws only became apparent through experience and personal growth.  I came to realize that the metaphor, though powerful, is only a tool for the user- it is neither good nor bad in and of itself.  How one chooses to use it is a personal choice.  I can recall watching propaganda videos that the Nazis made of rats in the sewers spliced between shots of Jews in the streets.  They were building a powerful metaphor for the viewers, the outcome of which would prove to have dire consequences for Jewish people at that time in history.

During my business and marketing courses at the U of M, I would continually stumble across the phrase “it’s lonely at the top.”  As I’ve never been to “the top,” I can’t really sympathize with this cliché.  In fact, it always irritated the hell out of me.  It makes the assumption that there is “a top” and conversely there must be a bottom.  If there is only room at the top for a select few, then everyone else is situated beneath.  It also hinted at the idea that we should be striving to reach that place, because isn’t that what success is all about?  Being given the chance to complain about our superiority?

Not comfortable with the mindset that there are those on top and those on the bottom (winners and losers) I found myself looking at the metaphor I had been using for motivation and to frame my ideas of success.

I came to the following conclusions:

Out of this reasoning, another concept sprang to mind- I could actually help others on their way to success and happiness, which in turn would provide much gratification and abundance.  It was from this place that the seeds for the Rogue Buddha were sown.  This is also why I’ve chosen to share a lot of details from my life experiences with you.  In no way does it mean that I have the answers.  It’s really just a chance to share my mistakes so others don’t repeat them.  Take what you can use and ditch the rest.

While I’m still in the process of defining what success and happiness means to me, I am happy to say that I’m surrounded by other people who are actively pursuing their own ideals of success and living creative and abundant lives in the process.  This has been a key factor in my journey and growth.

When I look back at my old wading pool metaphor (which I ditched due to it’s negative connotations), I realize that the pool itself isn’t important, the people are. I hope that if I ever see someone drowning in that metaphorical pool, I’ll be aware enough to pull them to safety, just as many have done for me (and I hope will continue to in the future).

I’m always looking for new metaphors that not only empower myself, but those around me.  One such metaphor that I’m working on is that “life is a party and the funnest parties have the most people, or they’re more fun the more people in attendance, or rather the bigger the crowd, the more fun the party is...” Well, you get the point.  Like I said, it’s a work in progress.

However the metaphor turns out, I hope you invite me to your party as you’re surely invited to mine… Cheers!