WHAT IS, is what is supposed to be, or it would not be. The rest is just you, arguing with life.

~ Neale Donald Walsch

When I read that quote in the morning today, it was like someone threw a bucket of cold water over me. We all react to a bucket of cold water thrown over us unexpectedly, in more or less the same way, ordinarily. We get mad and want to kill someone in cold blood. I am as ordinary as they come.

I don’t know about you, I am not frightfully fond of taking stuff lying down. I’ve got to be up and doing- if you know what I mean- before I’d take it. Even then I’ll spit it out as soon as you think I’ve swallowed it. You’ve got to wake up VERY early in the morning to get the better of yours truly. Yep! That’s ‘cause yours truly is up an hour before dawn. The time, in case you forgot, when the night is at its darkest.

How you think you’ll EVER manage to pull a clever on me, is more than I can understand. But hey, you are welcome to your pipe dreams. I don’t mind at all. I shall look on with saintly forbearance and try not to giggle in your face when you end up looking foolish with an F- a capital F.

I set out to demolish the pompous statement with a vengeance. These are the arguments (oh damn that word!) I jotted down at a fast clip:

1. WHAT IS is what is supposed to be: NO, it is NOT! It’s supposed to be something quite different from what it is. WHAT IS is actually the perfect definition of what it is not to be, should not be, cannot be allowed to be. Its like antimatter… or a parallel universe. One can’t work with antimatter, right? Ridiculous..!

2. Or it would not be: NO. WHAT IS is because someone goofed up big time. They weren’t supposed to goof up. They were supposed to be where they were told to be and to do what they were told to do. But they didn’t and so everything went haywire, landing us bang in the middle of WHAT IS. And now you are telling me this is what was supposed to be all along?! Haha… what a sick joke! Go boil your head, you lump of sodden wood!

3. The rest is just me: Just…! Did you use the word ‘just’ to define my persona? Oh, you poor fish! I can’t even be angry with you, you are so pathetic! You think a person of my magnitude can be contained in a flimsy word like just. Stop pickin’ your nose baby, that’s rude! Besides being grossly repulsive, of course.

4. Arguing with life: And why may I not argue with my life, pray? It is my life. I will argue with it until it turns blue in the face and has to be given CPR… which I will do myself thank you very much… don’t you dare touch it! Once it recovers, I’ll start arguing all over again. I will. I. SIMPLY. WILL. SO there!!

I felt much better after this little exercise. I even felt kindly towards Neale, the misguided old thing. Not his fault, really. It’s He who plays with Neale’s mind, stuffing all kinds of fruity ideas into it and pouring vats of vinegar in. No wonder the poor man’s brains are pickled. What did you expect?

I only wish rhetoric had the power to knock the truth out.