Stuff

The late, great George Carlin had a classic routine dealing with “Stuff”. We’ve all got it. I’ve been thinking about stuff lately – not the physical stuff that George talked about, you know, all the stuff we tote around. No, I’ve been thinking about the mental and emotional stuff that weighs us down. We’ve all got that too. Even those people who seem like they’ve got everything together are often just wearing a mask to cover their stuff.

I don’t know what your stuff is, and you probably don’t know what my stuff is, but I do know this: no body really wants to trade their stuff for yours, even though the stuff in their life seems insurmountable. Stuff is your ugly feet. Yes, your ugly feet! Look down…don’t try to tell me your feet aren’t ugly in some way because they all are! But living without them, while not impossible, is still more difficult. I need to learn to live with my stuff. I need to learn to understand what it is, how it got there, and then make it help me to be better. William Barclay said “Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.” It is important to try control our stuff so that our stuff does not wind up controlling us. Look around you right now. No, I meant it, look around. If you see someone who is struggling, love them. If you don’t see someone struggling, they might be faking it, so love them too.

Stuff  seems so insignificant when we just call it stuff. But we know better…

-Rise Up!!!