Winners and Losers, Tasters and Wasters..

Evening folks...

As part of the Abraxus Initiative, I'm seeking to change my own behaviour through a variety of measures. There is an extremely effective, though often overlooked, method of recovery from trauma that I'd like to introduce to you. The best example I can think to write of, at the moment, is how one can achieve behavourial modification via altering one's thesaurus; how you can manipulate it, and why it matters.

One of the things I often think about is the power of my personal lexicon... The words I use and how they affect me. It is well known that one of the benefits of learning a second language is that it allows you to -think- in an unfamiliar manner, as sentence structures and terminology are often non-parallel. I'm endeavouring to learn Espanol for this very reason. Also because it would give me access to the local Mexican community, a highly undervalued culture that exists right under my nose.

So first up...

Winners and Losers.

A thing that frequently ruffles my feathers is the Black/White dichotomy... among witches, among monotheists, and most terribly; among the mundane populace as well.

America is so deeply rooted in the Protestant black/white dichotomy that it bleeds over into every conceivable permutation of society... to our vast detriment. Granny Luci is rather bebothered, though she tries to hide it. Aunt Lili is flat out pissed, and she don't hide it at all. Anywho...

Okay, so Winners and Losers. Every redblooded American is most well-versed in this concept... Either one is a Winner, or a Loser. No inbetween. No gray area, either you Won, or you Lost. Period. Zero-sum. The End.

When you live in the Win/Lose frame of mind, you run into a simple yet profound problem. In order to be a Winner, one must Win at all times. Otherwise, one can never retain the mantle of Perfect Winner, which is quite dogmatically implied... If you don't win, You're a Loser. Period. There is no room for circumstance. Either you Win, or you're a loser. Case Closed.

I utterly loathe the concept of Perfection, which I will address in a multi-part mega-post in the future. But simply put, The Perfect Winner is an unachievable goal. Therefore, one is -always- a loser. It's a very simple conclusion.

AND IT'S WRONG. As in immoral, unholy... blasphemous, even.

Tasters and Wasters.

Contrast this with my newly instituted framework, of Tasters and Wasters.

The great horror of the Win/Lose dichotomy is that it leads some poor souls to become so convinced of their own Loserdom, that they scarcely even try. This is related in the delightful film, Little Miss Sunshine. Grampa makes it clear: The only -real- Losers, are people who are so afraid of losing, that they never even try. Every American knows this feeling... the fear of failure so great that they waste opportunities, simply for their fear of Failure itself. And that, as it turns out, is the key.

You see... even considering the Black/White dichotomy, in order to lose, one must at least Try. They must partake... they must Taste. Taste of victory, taste of defeat, taste of Life. As opposed to the others.. those who, so scared of losing, refuse to try, to partake, to Taste. So obsessed with Winning, that they ruin friendships, destroy projects, alienate others... who ultimately, only excel at whining.

Guess who is who...

A choice, repeated often enough, becomes a habit, which repeated often enough, becomes a reflex. I know... for I spent a great deal of my life as a total waster, so obsessed was I with losing. I reflexively wasted opportunities left, right and center. For Love, for sex, for profit, for parties, for victory, for defeat... For Life Itself...

This lead me down a most destructive path... and while I can't blame all of it on the Win/Lose dichotomy, it sure as Hell didn't help matters. And so I'm endeavouring to discard the Winner/Loser paradigm, and instead focus on Tasting/Wasting.

Consider of the metaphorical weight of these words. When your a Loser, you can only lose... You can blame it on all kinds of circumstances, many of which are possibly justified. But regardless, you are still a defeatist, obsessed with losing, ignoring all signs of victory. And how could that possibly help?

Wasting, on the other hand... in order to stop being wasteful, you barely need extend the slightest effort. You wash ceramic dishes instead of wasting resources on paper ones. You upcycle, downcycle, recycle, inside-out-cycle everything, until you've worn that object the bloody hell out. You keep using things until they are done. (Incidentally, this can save you a staggering amount of money.)

No more for the landfill... you compost that shit. No more for the scrapyard, you make Art of that shit. You beat every last molecule of value out of that old shirt, old tire, old anything.

And you take chances... You stop wasting opportunitie that may never come again. For whatever reason... whether you be tired, broke, sick, dying even. If you got an excuse, you make sure it counts... cause otherwise.. you're being a waster.

See the difference? Tasters: those to taste the fruits of Life; and Wasters: those to waste opportunities to Taste. This subtle, yet profound distinction, can make an impact on a person at a molecular level, over the course of time. Literally.

This can be applied to every conceivable facet of yourself. This focus on tasting Life, versus wasting Life. You only get one, for the most part...

The Difference:

Take the biggest loser in history, you know him, you love him; the Trying Man himself, Jesus Christ.

Ted Neely - Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973

If you read the stories, he was a staggering loser... a bum, a wandering huckster, with a gaggle of itnerate fishermen, burned-out tax collectors, ex-convicts... He was the blazing epitome of what his own culture, and most certainly America, would consider a loser. His girlfriend was an ex-hooker for goodness sake. He wandered around the desert, preaching blasphemous sermons for pocket-change, wrecking temples and camping with lepers, a self-proclaimed messiah, then tops it all off by getting himself killed because he wouldn't shut his big mouth.

Does that sound like a Winner to you?

Though he lost on a nonstop basis, he wasted Nothing. Ever. Give him a couple loaves of worm-eaten bread, and he makes four-dozen fresh... Throw him your rotten fish, and he feeds a multitude. Molecular engineering through the power of toil, sweat, and righteousness alone... He saw through the stereotypes, and found virtue among rebels, the down-trodden, the damned and the dying. He saw Mary Magdelaine's glory, undimmed by her profession... and then tops it off by saving his people and becoming a full-blown Deity.

Does that sound like a Waster to you?

See what I'm getting at? By altering your lexicon, your personal choice of vocabulary, you can alter your entire frame of reference...

An action, repeated enough, becomes a habit, becomes a reflex. You can literally change your living paradigm itself via altering your vocabulary. While it may not be spontaneous molecular engineering, it can make a world of difference within your own life. You will Taste.. of everything. Food, sex, books, marathons, careers, hobbies...you may lose, a thousand times, and find some of them not quite to your liking.

But, oh, will you taste...

And you will know change, I promise. You will begin to evaluate folks based not on their material possessions, their facile displays of trendy wealth, always crumbling... always "so 5-minutes ago"... but rather on their efforts, their nerve, their force, and gumption... Their determination, their conviction, their bloody Glory itself... and that is Righteousness..

I would much rather break bread with such a tasteful loser as Christ; than a wasteful winner...

(Alex Brandon/AP)

Blessings to the Blissful,

Silas Danois