The Basic Truth of Life
Embrace this one thing and be free.
Many years ago I was leafing through a magazine and came across a really funny piece called A Short Guide to Comparative Religions. Nobody seems to know the original creator, but you might have seen it circulating on posters and T-shirts. It’s a genius list of variations on “Shit Happens” organized by religion:
Taoism: Shit happens.
Buddhism: If shit happens, is it really shit?
Zen: What is the sound of shit happening?
Hinduism: This shit happened before.
Jehovah’s Witness: Knock knock, shit happens.
And so on, you get the idea. I remember laughing so hard that day because it was hilarious but it was also true. At the time, I was in my twenties and considered myself an atheist (there is no shit). I had been raised Catholic (if shit happens, we deserve it) but by that time I thought all religions were pretty much…well, bullshit.
It was only years later, after a spiritual awakening and a few shitstorms in my own life that I realized just how much truth there is in this list, irreverent though it may be. For so many years, I believed that religion was just a security blanket for people who couldn’t cope with life as it really is. Now I realize that it’s a way for people…
