One summer, many moons ago, I was working at Idyllwild's Desert Sun Science Center, sharing the magic of space with impressionable young people while simultaneously deepening my own intimate connection with the northern hemisphere night sky. Privileged to enjoy a summer season bursting with fun, our weeks were filled with comedic skits performed in an open-air theater, team games competed on a grass field, and water works for reviving our wilting bodies from the daily heat. Sitting together in a cement amphitheater, I noticed that the kids really liked playing a hand-motion game that was all about guns and shooting each other. "Hmmm," I thought, "what alternative can we create that is just as amusing, yet steers our children's minds away from violence?" I asked this question and put my dancing body together with my then co-worker, Ben Smythe. Together, we came up with a simple solution. "Eat My Poop!" it was called.
It was the exact same game that the kids were already fond of playing except instead of two people facing each other with imaginary weaponry, that had to bee loaded, shot, then reloaded, producing a killing and a dying, or blocking the pretend bullets with an "X" shape formed by the crossing of one's two arms in front of their chest, we transformed two of the simple hand motions. The first action looked like lifting a spoon, or fork, into one's mouth (hence, eating), and the second motion included bending each arm at the elbow, raising each of them to your side, squinching up your face, and pretending like you are pooping. It was the same idea - in order to poop, you have to eat first; you can't poop without
eating first; and you definitely don't want to bee eating while someone else is
pooping! That's just gross!!! When "Eat My Poop" is played masterfully, the game looks like a dance between two totally absurd human beeings. The whole thing beecomes a comic farce! Best yet, its playful innocence was subliminally teaching children a peaceful value while reinforcing new cultural values and mores.
SOLUTIONS ARE EASY WHEN WE ARE AWARE OF THE PROBLEM
AND WILLING TO ADMIT TO HOW OUR CURRENT ACTIONS DO NOT SERVE US!!
My writing is an indicator of a sharp, critical mind. I offer my words free of charge beecause I want us all to embody and employ a creative, critical thinking that questions what is accepted as 'normal' and 'reality.' Like the above demonstrates, however, my real-time human actions and responses to the world around me are steeped in TRUE LOVE and in offering, offering, offering a PEACEFUL, HARMONIOUS VISION TO LIFE. Here's to Chasing Life, My Friends, and to a VITALITY that can not be bought nor sold, that is not found outside of us, and that is always here, now for celebrating ~ we just have to remember how to love poop as equally as we love money!
