NitN 46 - Six of Swords (Patelitent’s Eric Deicaza Belts a Warcry of Radical Acceptance)

Podcaster! Neuroscientist (soonish)! Liminal Trickster Mystic! Wise well beyond his years, Eric Deicaza becomes an official Node in order to deliver the quasi-dharmic transmission that can get us to surrender to the inevitability of the eternal now.

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Intro!

Grant me the courage to change the things I can.
The serenity to accept the things I can’t.
And the wisdom to know the difference.

I think that’s what we’re looking for: the single word that summarizes the serenity prayer.

You may have gathered that my pitch is for “Yes-and-ness.”

A key improv principle, the phrase “yes, and” encourages performers to build off each other’s ideas. This allows them to take their scenes in new and unexpected directions.

When you stumble blindly onto the stage and your comic troop partner says, “Why did Godzilla have to attack on the day before I retire?” you don’t respond, “No no no, I’ve got a better idea: you’re my highschool classmate and we’re nervous about PE later today.”

You can’t build something together when you start off fundamentally denying the reality you’ve just walked into. You’re better off saying, “Yeah, and that vacation is going to have to wait; he’s coming this way!” Yes, you’re retiring and yes, Godzilla is attacking, and he’s coming this way.

Actually, sometimes improv isn’t that straight forward. Confronted by the same scene you could also roll your eyes and say, “Yeah, Murphy, I’m sure a giant, irradiated lizard is the only thing stopping you from retiring at 65 with no savings and no pension in this economy.” Most importantly, you’ve still agreed to the fundamental reality, yes. And, you also challenge an aspect of what your partner said, leaving room for an attempt at humor.

Similarly, “yes-and-ness”, encourages action on the knowledge that we’re meant to work with our experiences, rather than against them, while also asserting my agency in my framing and reaction.

When faced with crappy situations that bum me out, rather than trying to suppress or ignore my challenging emotions, I’ve been leading with “yes, and.”

Yes, it’s a grim fact of reality that the circumstances of this moment can’t be improved from inside it. I accept reality as it is without grasping or aversion.

Yes, it’s “hopeless” to try to willfully change my emotional reaction. I accept my feelings without judgment or recrimination.

Yes, I may even have pre-agreed to this experience in order to learn a vital lesson during this incarnation. This trauma may be the exact thing that allows my soul to matriculate from reincarnating into chrysalis after chrysalis of mere matter and take flight into the infinite oneness of pure being.

AND none of that fucking matters to me right now because I have to do something to improve my situation. I will fight with every fiber. I will claw reality’s eyes out. I will flip over a cop car. Something has to change.

That’s all folks!

Read the full essay here!

And don’t forget to listen to Eric Deicaza’s podcast, Patelitent!