Ordinary Guy

Transcript

Welcome, beautiful thinkers!

Let’s talk about being an ordinary guy.

I mentioned many times on the podcast that book “Impro” by Keith Johnstone, I mentioned it in an interview with my friend Will Etchison. And he went ahead and read it, he took my recommendation seriously, which is really sweet.

Sort of really nice when somebody takes your word takes your opinion seriously, and acts on it and goes and read something.

And he revealed to me like you mentioned, “Ouh, let me tell you some things I liked about the book.

One thing that sticks with me now is this example, where there are a bunch of people in a circle, and they’re doing this improv game is a rhyme game. So it’s like a cypher, we’ll call it in hip hop.

So they go around, somebody says a verse like two lines or four lines, and then the next person, each person going around the circle.

Now it so happens that one of the people in the circle, drops the bomb, comes out with a really great line.

Everybody in the group is in hysterics, the audience is laughing, they love it, goes around the circle again. And then it comes back to that fellow’s turn.

Now, he might well feel the pressure of his past, he feels the pressure, knowing that last time he dropped the bomb.

Now is he going to be able to drop it again?

Maybe not, maybe he’s going to drop the ball instead, maybe he’s not going to come through with the goods.

There’s a lot of pressure.

And it’s likely that because he’s putting pressure on himself, he actually is going to drop the ball, it’s not going to come off well, there’s going to be some kind of pretense, some kind of ego, which inhibits him from being in touch with that part of himself, which enabled that pure expression in the first place.

So, Johnson tells us: just be an ordinary guy.

I don’t know the exact words I’ll have to look up the court later.

But he tells us it’s fine to be absolutely ordinary.

Another context this comes into play when we step into a business meeting.

And there might be a whole bunch of executives.

Maybe we’re facing a judge, a magistrate in the difficult situation, or a boss.

Might be difficult for us, we might put a lot of emphasis on these events. And so we feel nervous. We’re doing a public speech.

That’s another important situation that’s been come up for many of us that the people in the audience, or that judge, or that boss, they’re all just like you.

We’re all equal in the eyes of God.

Or in the story told by physicist Dick Feynman.

Feynman’s father, I believe was a tailor.

And he knew better than most people what lies underneath clothing.

And once he presented Feynman, young Dick, a picture of the Pope and a cardinal or a pope and a constituent of the church.

And Mr. Feynman said to young Dick, “What is the difference between these two men?”

And young Richard said, “Well, his deposition, the one has more power, one has more authority.”

And Mr. Feynman said, “No, it’s the clothes. That’s the only difference.”

Mr. Feynman knew that underneath those clothes, we all look pretty much the same.

I remember sitting in an Ayahuasca ceremony, and I was probably sitting there in the half lotus position. I already had taken, the medicine, the ceremony was well on the way.

And something happened. Maybe I giggled, or laughed ,or snorted, or made some unusual sound.

And I started to think, “Oh, no. What are people going to think of me? What are the guides gonna think of me? What my companions are going to think of me? They think I’m some kind of fool sitting here giggling to myself.”

And then I thought, “Hold on a second. I’m here with God, we’re here with God, just like we always are.

Sitting here, in this holy place.

Nothing can be hidden from God.

God knows all.

God knows my motivations and my flaws.

Nothing is hidden.

So what can there possibly be to be ashamed of?

Would it make any sense?

Rather, I can have confidence, faith in my own being, being exactly as I am.

There’s nothing else to be, there’s nothing else to want for exactly as you are right now.

Perhaps not anything special, just another essential part of this universe.

Just an ordinary person.

You’re doing just fine.”