#beautifulthingswillhappen

[mondaymotivationtime-blog]

Beautiful things happen when you distance yourself from negative

[joeboettcher]

Lessons Learned

Dan and I went out to the point to shoot off some fireworks. Since it was a Thursday night, there weren’t many people up there. However, we were considerably startled by the folks that we did find up there. Five doughy white guys in white collared shirts and slacks greeted us with salutations and goofy grins. 

“Howdy, fellows,” said one of the doughy white men. “My name’s Travis and I’m the leader of a newly formed cult called ‘The Doughy White Chaps.’”

Dan gave me a concerned glance. I wasn’t feeling so hot about this whole situation myself.

“Um, hi,” I replied.

“We were just having our first meeting up here at the point. Would you like to join us?” asked Travis, his voice growing more and more chipper by the second.

“Thanks for the offer, but we’re just here to set off some fireworks,” said Dan.

I fidgeted nervously. Dan always had to be so honest about everything. Shooting off fireworks was illegal in our town. I hoped desperately that these men, who seemed like out-of-towners, didn’t know that. And if they did, I hoped they wouldn’t be sticks in the mud and turn us in. Based on their appearance, I was sure we were screwed. Then Travis said something surprising.

“What a coincidence!” Travis replied. “We were just about to shoot off some fireworks too! Why don’t we set our fireworks off together?”

Dan gave me a questioning look and I vehemently shook my head no. Something about this whole situation felt off and I just wanted to get out of there.

Dan turned to Travis and said, “Can my friend and I have a moment to talk this over?”

“Sure,” Travis chirped. “We’ll just be over here doing secret cult things when you two are ready to rejoin us.”

Dan and I walked away from The Chubby White Chaps and began debating.

“What’s wrong, dude?” said Dan. “I thought you wanted to set off some fireworks.”

“I just don’t want to set them off with those weirdos,” I replied.

“They don’t seem that weird to me.”

“That’s because nothing seems weird to you, Dan! You can’t tell the difference between Lady Gaga and Sarah McLaughlin, for heaven’s sake.“

“But they’re both female pop singers...”

I shook my head.

“Dan, listen to me. These guys are all wearing the same outfit. They are strangely cheery. And their leader even told us that they’ve just formed a cult. Doesn’t any of that seem like a red flag to you?”

Dan smiled and patted me on the back reassuringly.

“Dude, I think you’re over-analyzing the situation. You’re thinking too much with your head and not enough with your gut. My gut thinks these guys seem nice and my gut really wants to set off some fireworks. Now my question for you is, does your gut agree?”

“This is nuts!”

“Now see, that’s your brain talking again. I want to hear from your gut.”

“Okay, fine,” I said. “Just give me a minute.”

“Take your time,” said Dan.

I had never spoken from my gut before, and to be honest, I didn’t really know how. I clenched my fists, closed my eyes, and concentrated all of my attention on my gut, hoping to intuit whatever it had to say for itself. As I concentrated, I began to feel my stomach chemicals start to bubble and condense. Wow, this actually might be working, I thought to myself, as the activity in my gut became increasingly intense.

Evidently, Dan had noticed me concentrating because he said, “Dude, are you okay? You look kind of pale.”

I didn’t respond because I was too busy concentrating. I felt like I was on the verge of a gigantic epiphany, but for some reason it just wasn’t coming. Then I thought, Maybe I’ve already had the epiphany and I just need to express it verbally. Perhaps my gut can speak through me now if I just open my mouth. So I did.

Suddenly the air was filled with the most beautiful aria I had ever heard. The music soared through the treetops and gently kissed the ionosphere. It was so beautiful that it moved me to tears. I glanced over at Dave and he too was crying. I could hear sobs coming from over where The Chubby White Chaps were standing as well.

But where was the music coming from? I looked around for its source, but there was no opera singer to be seen. Then I realized my mouth was still open.

It was my gut. My gut was singing the aria! I had no idea my gut knew how to speak Italian, let alone sing it!

For five glorious minutes The Chubby White Chaps, Dan, and I just stood there entranced by my gut’s beautiful vocals. Then, for another five minutes, we gave my gut a standing ovation.

“Benissimo!” shouted Travis as he came over to shake my hand.

“Dude, that was amazing,” Dan said as he wiped the tears from his face.

“It wasn’t me, Dan, it was my gut,” I replied.

“What did I tell you, dude?” Dan smiled. “Good things happen when you speak from your gut, or in this case sing from your gut!“

We all laughed at this, but our laughter was cut short by the sound of police sirens. 

“Aw, crap,” said Travis. “Somebody called the fuzz.”

A cop car pulled up. Two cops got out and approached us.

“Evening, gentlemen,” said one of the cops. Both men wore leather jackets and sunglasses, even though it was a hot summer night. “We received a report of a noise ordinance violation coming from this neck of the woods. You all wouldn’t happen to know anything about that now, would you?”

Travis replied quickly.

“No, sir. We wouldn’t know anything about that. Nothing funny’s going on here.”

“The report said it sounded like an Italian opera singer,” said the other officer. “You fellows aren’t into opera, are you?”

“No sir!” said Travis. “We think opera is awful!”

“Oh really?” said the first officer as he slowly approached Travis. “Then why...does it look like...you’ve been crying?”

The officer put his finger to Travis’ face and wiped away a single tear.

“Every man for himself!” screamed Travis.

We all bolted off in different directions. I sprinted away blindly and slammed right into a tree. Everything went black.

I awoke in the back of a police car. My head was throbbing. Dan was sitting next to me looking dejected.

“They found our fireworks,” he mumbled. “We’re in deep crap.”

“What was that?” said one of the officers from the front.

“Nothing,” said Dan.

The officer turned and gave us a sharp look.

“Now I hope you boys have learned your lesson,” he said.

“Oh, don’t worry, officer. We have,” said Dan.

“Are you being smart with me, son?” said the officer as he took off his sunglasses.

That’s when I noticed his eyes. They were bloodshot. Something had recently made him cry and I was pretty sure I knew what that something was.

And that’s when I realized I actually had learned a lesson that night:

Listen to your gut and beautiful things can happen.

-Joe