What's 'What's that about?' about?

Pt.1 of 2 - Intro

First things first.

There are two, yes count them, two, ‘What’s that about?’s. The first is the blog, ‘What’s That About?’, my report on my time sucking air up to now, as outlined in my first post.

The second WTA is a practice I’ve developed. Well the practice has been around for millennia, I’ve just given it a name really. ‘What’s that about?’ as a practice is simply a mature way of finding out, to the best of our ability, what something that perplexes us is about, so that we can deal with life better.

An aside. When I learned to swim, I did so in the shallow side of the pool. You see, I learned to swim at the Port Wakefield pool, which was simply the blocked off end of the rarely flowing Wakefield River. It wasn’t overly deep at any point really, apart from under the diving board, where a hole had been deliberately excavated to allow the adventurous to slake their adrenalin thirst.

As if the diving board wasn’t enough for the foolhardy; the pool proper was dark and dingy, being not much more than a stagnant pond abounding with barnacles on the ladders, conjunctivitis, and a plethora of coli.

Ah, the 50’s, a time of romance and diarrhea.

Now, having learnt to swim on the shallow side, I was ready to try the murkier, deeper stuff over towards the middle and other side of the pool. This step was a large one though.

The shallow side was safer, because although the broken beer bottles were never in short supply, I would, if needed, be able to run away, (even with the difficulty of ankle deep sulphurous silt suctioning every step, holding fast like the grimy grip of a zombie reaching up through the sod from its lonely grave).

That was however, at those tender years, far better than being eaten up by some monster that was probably lurking, just waiting for me to stray out of my depth.

Then, one azure skied summer's day, an hour after eating, I summoned the power of the anger that had been festering from years of humiliation, to carry me over to where my older brother freely frolicked, in the deep water.

After an eternity of splashing and lashing out with reaching, wheeling arms, eyes closed, head back, mouth parallel to the surface of the water, my neck jutting up like a turtle trying to bring down a condor, I got there ... I was free.

The deep water couldn’t stop me any more. I was able to tread water, float if need be. I could frolic with the best of ‘em.

The process of maturing is a lot like my experience of learning to swim. We take risks to gain some new freedom. Then in time, we may find ourselves constrained by the safe walls of our new, moderately larger, world.

The shallow side has dangers that we've learnt to manage. After a while however, a feeling of being cramped can creep in and niggle away.

We want to see what’s just over there. Just beyond our safe wall.

In short, we want to go to the deeper water.

In the shallow side of the pool, we merely wonder, "What's that about?", or spit it out in frustration, “What’s that about?!!”

The wondering fades into the background and is forgotten, until next time. The frustration rationalises, blames and makes stuff up to feel a little less out of control; a little less 'little'.

Each allows us to stay within our depth.

When we take the risk to make a concentrated effort to find out ‘What’s that about?’, we are taken to the deeper water. And each time we go there we become more confident. And bit by bit, we notice a growing ease in our interaction with life.

In the next blog, we'll look at this second WTA as a practice for diving into the 'deeper waters' of this world of ours.

After that we'll open the gates to the more general WTA blog.

Topics might include things like:

• Don’t expect the dog to set the table!

• Accuracy is my ally!

• Trump!

• If you walk into the hungry lion’s den don’t blame the lion if you get eaten!

• (Any suggestions?)

See you soon for part 2 of the intro to ‘What’s that about?’ - The Practice.