I read and I’m paraphrasing “The more superficial you live life the greater the unraveling upon waking.” So what the hell does that mean…? Your assholery-ness measures how big a shit storm is coming if you choose to live an authentic life. Honestly: give or take the day of the week I would not recommend the authentic part. I think being an asshole is much easier; having done the latter.

The ego forms a course comfortable layer while having an affair with the asshole. Why? Because the asshole is never wrong… The asshole is always right… You know the type!!! An apology is as foreign to the egomaniacal twat as water is to the Sahara Desert. Owning one’s shit is not an easy task especially if the ego is running your life. The ego swims through superficial content like a porpoise surfing a breaking wave.

Flipping life on its head or you getting flipped on your head is the common denominator among humanitarians. Let’s face it: until you get your ass knocked down a few times empathy and compassion remain words rather than experience. As a species we learn by getting our asses kicked not kissed. Having your ass kissed ironically brings out the asshole and getting it kicked reduces assholery-ness.

If you don’t believe me talk to a trust fund baby… ask them about life and all its perils??? Crickets will chirp an orchestrated cacophony of boredom and narcissism. On the other hand talk to someone who has lost everything… I promise you it will not only be entertaining but enlightening. Why? Because they have had their ass kicked. The paradox of the next best story is not the rich guy buying a Ferrari its the poor son-of-bitch picking his teeth up from the gutter.

When was the last time you read a story of a rich kid going off to college in his black Range Rover? Or was it about the rich kid burning his trust fund and disappearing into thin air? Navigating life with spontaneity without money or a plan is what sells. Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Pursuit of Happiness, Of Mice and Men, The Alchemist…

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

The rich don’t fall and have never known what it feels like. Getting up is where character is carved out of the experience if you accept it.

“In every bit of honest writing in the world, there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. KNOWING A MAN WELL NEVER LEADS TO HATE and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. TRY TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER!”

― John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

The understanding or the search to understand comes from a rawness of life experienced deep down in the gut. A place only those who have lost and mourned and have been broken. This understanding comes regardless of how much money one has or lost. The losing is the dirt upon which life gains meaning and understanding beseeched… And even then inquiry is often left unfulfilled because life remains a mystery.

“It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made, or only just happened- Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many.”

― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Meaning and life gain depth after loss. This paradox gets troublesome because we stash and store and accumulate. In giving away we make room to understand our little place in the World. The pain shapes us and becomes our teacher. We see and hear differently because it hurts. Without the pain compassion and understanding are just words and life another word too.