I just want to kick my brain in the proverbial backside and start it operating as if it were brand new. I want to experiment with normality, routine, and custom.
I want to play with habit.
Queue up at KFC, not to buy food, but to tell the indian serving girl she has a nice ass.
Say ‘how has your day been’ to every single complete stranger I can.
When I’m in this kind of mood, I start with a few difficult challenges that always shake up my world, maybe you’d like to give them a try.
Day One - You are forbidden to buy anything. Anything, no bus fare, no snacks, no money to panhandlers, no magazines, no newspaper. No touching money or credit cards for 24 hrs. (This will reveal to you things about yourself that you will be thinking about for days.)
Day Two - You are forbidden to complain or say an unkind word. About anything or anyone. No matter what. Not your mother in law who just lit your hair on fire, not you kid who just ruined your DVD player. No. Matter. What. This is much harder than it sounds. It will change your perspective.
Day Three - On this day you must say thank you for everything that happens to you. Everything. Thanks for splashing me with dirty road water, thanks for the cold fries, oh, and thanks for short changing me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I know they are three silly things but they are actually very powerful. Shake up your world, get a new view, see with new eyes.
I haven’t done this exercise in such a long time. Thank you for reminding me of it, I think I will start tomorrow.
Some of these ideas border on breaching experiments in sociology, i.e. when you breach the boundaries of expected behavior, such as facing the back of the elevator. Such activities can be very powerful indicators of the hidden social norms that both you and the people around you have internalized without even realizing it. The rest are just plain fun.
I did an LJ entry on this very subject, but I can’t find it at the moment. Things like going shopping at the local convenience store while wearing a Cthulhu helmet (I did that on my birthday) are fun. But, for the most part they only alter how the world sees you. For a truly surreal life, you need to alter the way you see things.
Well, more specifically, you have to alter what it is you allow yourself to see. Surreality exists outside of mental conrols, it is a philosophy that views rationality & reason with suspicion. Pure psychic automatism, Lobster boy, that’s what you need! Just do stuff without thinking about it, and refuse to recognize what you believe to be consequences of your actions!
Birds do it.
Bees do it.
Even educated fleas do it.
I think sometimes on the sly you do it.
Maybe even you and I might do it…
