crikey

just heard about the death of Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter. thought it might be timely to reprint the postcard I wrote about him a few years ago. A guy this much larger than life can never really leave us ... Rock on Steve-O!
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greetings!

We don't have cable or regular TV at home, but whenever we go on vacation
I like to check out the current programming on the hotel's TV. This is
how I discovered my new hero -- Steve Irwin, a.k.a. The Crocodile Hunter.
This man lives and enjoys life to the absolute maximum degree.

No holds barred, he literally dives into situations that give me an
anxiety attack when I just think about them. He intentionally jumps
off boats into swamps at night and wrestles crocodiles into submission
in the black water. It's really an unbelievable sight.

Not only that, but his heart is just huge. Either that, or he's a really
convincing actor and I'm really gullible! But he seems to truly adore
his wife, and his baby daughter, and all the crocodiles he rescues.

He even calls venomous snakes and nasty lizards 'beauties', and all
indications are that he truly does see and appreciate the splendor
in creatures that most folks consider to be repulsive. (ok, who am I
kidding with that 'most folks' thing. I mean me!)

Anyhow, I actually went out and purchased my first very own DVD so
I could watch The Crocodile Hunter whenever I wanted. This is
perfect for me, because I prefer my risks to be delivered vicariously
whenever possible.

This is the same reason why my youngest brother, who has run marathons
on every continent, (yes, even Antarctica) is such a welcome guest in
our home. I love hearing about adventures while I'm safe, warm,
and dry in my living room. I'm a dedicated armchair traveler.
Bring on the slide shows!

So anyway, back to The Crocodile Hunter. In his fierce determination
to minimize harm to the crocs, he refuses to tranquilize them during
rescue and transport. Instead, about 10 big strong people jump on
the croc's back and hold it down while one of them covers its eyes.
As soon as it can't see anything, the croc can't identify a threat,
and it chills right out.

When they've transported it to safety, they uncover its eyes, and upon
spotting the water it heads right in and makes itself at home.
A few big hunks of raw meat later, all is once again right with its world.

After far too many viewings, I'm hearing faint echoes of my high school
literature teacher's voice -- "Perhaps, class, the author has intended
the crocodiles to be a metaphor for the wild and ferocious nature of
the human mind?"

Not that I would want to be literally blindfolded, but there does
seem to be a way to help my mind settle down by blocking out
certain kinds of input. Maybe, just like the crocodiles,
if my mind can't identify a threat, I won't be stressed out by it.

Now, since 99.99% of the threats in my life actually aren't,
(threats, I mean), this would come in real handy.
My life is hardly ever in actual danger. Yet my fight/flight/freeze
response gets triggered all the time.

So I'm developing yet another one of my crackpot theories:
I need 10 big strong people to volunteer to jump on top of me
and cover my eyes when I start going into one of my paranoid freak outs.
(just kidding - y'all live too far away for this to be practical.
I'd need you to live on my street and be on call 24/7 for this to work.)

What I really need is a different kind of blindfold. My friend
Drew Rozell, who is also a coach, approached this topic in a
particularly intriguing Drewsletter last year.
(here's the address if you want to read the whole article:
http://evolutioncoaching.com/drewsletterjune2002.html)

Rather, I’m asking what would happen if you made the decision
that you just no longer had problems. That the events that occur
or the things that need to get done that we’d normally approach
as problems were just events. Just life. Nothing wrong, nothing
that we need to react over, nothing that would justify putting
us in a really negative place. Just life.

Slip on those cool 'no problem' blinders, and formerly triggering
events become interesting, but not threatening. It sure beats the
worry and drama and focused attention that I usually give
to my 'problems'.

So let's try it on for size. One side of our basement floor has
sunk 2 inches during the last 6 months. Without my 'no problem'
blinders, this feels like a crisis, which requires much obsessing,
many phone calls, and a great deal of bemoaning the unlucky hand
of fate that located our house over bentonite.

With the blinders: No problem. Just call the mudjackers, get some
estimates, and hire one to fix the floor. Hmm. Simple! So far so good.

The key seems to be this: it's all about expectations.
If I expect things to be perfect -- the basement floor should
forever stay right where they put it 25 years ago -- then I'm
setting myself up for a problem when the nonnegotiable law of
entropy inevitably does its thing.

Or how about in relationship? Let's just hypothetically (?!) say
that 'someone' has gone through the first three decades of life
thinking that in a GOOD relationship, there's no conflict.
When conflict rears it's head, it's fight/flight/freeze city.
Big crisis. Must be resolved immediately. Frantic efforts
to restore agreement. Wailing and tears and gnashing of teeth.
Agony.

Now, what if I changed my expectations, and figured well, now, fer
shure somethin's bound to change 'round here sometime soon, but I reck'n
I'll be able to handle it. (it just sounds better in my head
when I say it hillbilly style, for some reason.)

Now when the floor sinks, I'm not surprised. I'm not telling myself
this wasn't supposed to happen. I'm not too busy resisting reality
to take action. I just do what needs doing.

And when a disagreement occurs, it's not a crisis. When my resources
aren't tied up telling me how wrong it is that this is happening,
and that surely this means something very ominous, I just might have
the clarity and energy to work through the conflict, or to patiently
hang out with it while it runs its course.

Just like those crocs, my alarm systems won't be triggered, because
my mind has not been able to identify the situation as a problem.
It's just life. No stress response is activated, and no struggle
against reality ensues. (hey, I wonder if when the blinders finally
come off those crocodiles, and they see the nice pool of water and
those big hunks of meat, they can hardly believe their good luck?!)

Maybe the biggest problem is the idea that there shouldn't be any
problems, and the thought that if I can just get things all perfectly
set up once and for all, they'll run smoothly forevermore.

Entropy, you say? I'll have to look that up in my son's science book.
I must have been daydreaming in physics class that day.
Or is thermodynamics taught in chemistry?

Anyway, could this be what all those bumper stickers are getting at
when they say Sh-t Happens?