Here you are.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Let the breath fill your entire body.
Let it go.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
Does this ever happen to you?
You think you know something but you're not sure if it's right but you don't really want to check because then it might ruin what you think you know.
The professor in me wants to say,
Resist this feeling.
If you don't know something for sure,
Do some research.
Find out because otherwise truth and life can get awfully squishy.
But the poet in me wants to say,
Sit in this space because it can be weird,
Magical,
Giving us a different kind of truth.
So for instance,
I swear that one time my brother told me that as a part of his work he was stressing cabbages.
I'm not kidding.
He's a scientist and cabbages apparently produce anti-carcinogens when they get stressed.
So he was trying to stress the cabbages to get the most anti-carcinogens.
For years I did not ask him how he stressed cabbages because I had far more fun imagining how you might go about such a thing.
Loud music at all hours of the night.
Surly teenagers crouched right beside the head of the cabbage emanating waves of disapproval and annoyance.
I am sad to say it turns out that I talked to my brother once more about this and he wasn't the one stressing the cabbages.
It was a co-worker and the person was using light.
Inhale.
Exhale.
One of the other things I do not want to disprove is what someone told me recently.
That the words coke and okay are two of the most recognizable words in the world.
Now I don't really care about coke but I'm fascinated that the word okay might hold this position in the world.
Why is it that so many of us want to hear?
You are okay.
God even as I say that I can feel my entire body relax.
You are okay.
Inhale.
Exhale.
You are okay.
What is it about that phrase,
That word,
That causes such a beautiful visceral response?
A question I'm even more fascinated with after I check in with my old friend the Oxford English Dictionary which defines okay as all correct,
All right,
Satisfactory,
Good,
Well,
In good health or order.
I mean that's all fine and good but I think many of us have a more,
Well,
Magical definition for the word because in a way it's surprising that we want to hear you are okay.
I teach and let me tell you my students are not okay with being okay.
Almost every single one of them expects an A in my class because anything less than that is not okay.
On a related note many years ago I knew someone whose daughter went to college and people would ask him how she liked it and he would answer,
It's okay.
Everyone would immediately respond,
Oh what's wrong?
Why doesn't she like it?
He was flummoxed.
I told him that he should instead answer,
It's fine because okay often really means not okay and when he answered with fine instead people just nodded and smiled.
So there's this tension in the word.
You don't just want to be okay.
You probably want to excel.
You want to achieve.
You want to stand out and be the best.
Crush the competition.
You want to do what's right all of the time.
You want to do whatever it takes to be better than okay and that is so exhausting.
So you want to be told you are okay.
It is so hard to tease out why.
What does the word do for us?
Is okay an amulet,
A charm that protects us against evil or mischief?
I don't think so nor is it a spell magically making what isn't okay instantly better.
Okay is not really a recipe.
If you add this and that and stir like mad then all will be well and it's not a prescription.
Here take this and you'll feel better.
I think you are okay is a harbor.
It's a place of shelter.
Something you long to move into probably after you've been trying to navigate the crashing waves and sudden storms of life.
In the word okay you are safe,
Protected and there's enough in the hold of your belly to keep you fed for a very long time and there is even treasure in there.
And of course as that saying goes we know boats aren't meant to always stay in the harbor but once you regroup once you gather those supplies you need then you can go back out.
So you are okay.
You are okay.
You are okay.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Live light y'all.
