A FEW FREE THOUGHTS: Moonshine
by Ken Hurley
Let’s begin by asking, “Does this sentence remind you of sex?” Take a moment. Think about it. Sensual. Yes. Yeesss. Just a little longer. Ok, let’s continue.
Her name is Moonshine. Her birth name was Amy but she changed her name in college to reflect her clandestine hobby of sipping bathtub gin at night with the boys in the rough near hole nine while star gazing and giggling over hedonistic leanings. By hedonistic leanings, I mean, the boys. I know. I was one of them.
We dated for awhile in college but our arguments over which one of us was more disappointed with the other caused us to break up.
Moonshine was a self-confessed hyperbolic, histrionic, bloviating, boorish, boneheaded, ill-informed, exagerating, argumentative, status seeking, loud, mistrustful yet a fascinating libertine and vulgarian who was so skeptical she couldn’t even believe in herself. Piercings, tats, Kools, and leather. She’s a free spirit and yes, she is a friend.
She wasn’t always so self-aware that she could offer such a harsh critique of herself. It took decades. She still struggles with self-identification.
She didn’t have a pleasant manner when she realized she wasn’t getting her way. She was so self-absorbed and blinded by her ill-formed ideology that she stumbled through every pit a pure ideological approach to life has to offer. She had zero concept that the world or her friends could have different opinions than she. Yet, she was desperate to change the world.
She worked hard at the arguments she enjoyed as long as she felt in the end she was right. She was like shampoo, only for yelling. She would yell. Repeat. Yell again. All to get her way often over the most insignificant issues.
She thought she was right even after it was clear she was merely rationalizing to protect her hurt feelings. Like the Fox in the Fox and the Grapes fable.
One day after she and I got into a little brouhaha (mosty ha ha for me) over who would win in a fight: Probiotics or Antibiotics? Moonshine realized the art of relaxed communication was preferable to her ways and stopped dancing with her anger. Overnight she stopped her maddening quest to change the world to fit her needs. Her dubious and doubtful outlook eased as she began to embrace the joys of life without being overly critical. She became remarkably accepting of others. She even developed an enriched sixth sense of humor. She changed herself and found what she describes as tranquility of mind. Others might say inner peace. She taught herself how to experience fully the present moment. She finally settled on a laissez-faire approach that resembeled an Epicurean Socratic Marxist. And by Marxist, I mean the Groucho variety. Her stuggles with the world ended when she learned to release, relax, let go, and laugh.
Moonshine is an illustrative example of how one of the greatest attributes we humans have is the ability to change our mind. To do so we need to understand our own thoughts. We don’t always have to be right. And, it’s likely, most of us are not.
We must learn how to change our mind before we can change the world.
Still, just as the sun rises and sets, Moonshine may indeed one day change the world. I know she tries.
The question remains, does this sentence remind you of sex? Take a moment.
