Vlad’s B’Day Invite HERE
Feb Meditation HERE
I knew it would be the highlight of my week.
Specifically, my semi-annual dental exam and cleaning.
After years of neglecting my teeth in my 20s, I’ve become religious about my routine.
Even though I’m reading Werner Herzog‘s new autobiography and he has warned me––
“Prepare yourself:
there is never a day without a sucker punch”
Nonetheless, as I adorned the paper dental bib, I held onto the highest hopes.
It’s wise, of course, always to be aware of our own hubris (and unwarranted optimism).
Indeed, around that topic, this week offered an interesting synchronicity.
Three students in my new course used the same phrase to describe how they were feeling about their progress:
“Two steps forward, one step back.”
That seems a particularly appropriate response, given that we’re applying classical storytelling techniques to personal transformation.
While that combination of progress followed by setback is fundamental to narrative structure, and is truly necessary to keep us interested in the literary tale, it can be a bit daunting in our personal experience.
It can feel like a game of Cosmic Hopscotch (but often a lot less fun.)
For the last few years, I’ve been a patient at the dental school at NYU.
It’s one of many options my insurance covers but I’d probably go there anyway for several reasons.
You’re assigned a senior and a junior student who are being graded, and your care being overseen by the most qualified professors.
No one is “phoning it in,” in other words, and there’s definitely no upselling.
Everyone is VERY serious about the task at hand.
Indeed, two years ago, I had something unusual happening with my cuspids and my dental arch.
The professor asked if I wouldn’t mind if a few other students could also have a look.
I nodded, mumbling semi-unintelligibly under the novocaine, “Sure…The More The Merrier.”
As is so often the case, what I’m teaching or writing about manifests vividly in my life.
The morning after I shared more about the “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back” phenomenon in class, it came knocking on my front door.
I was invited to be an expert for a big wellness event next week and in the team meeting to discuss my presentation, I offered a topic everyone loved.
Thrilled, I realized that I could also weave not only next month’s newsletter’s theme around it, but also record the new meditation a week early and even share it at the event.
For once, in terms of content creation, I’d be two steps ahead.
Finishing up the recording two weeks early, I was beyond thrilled.
That is, until preparing to upload the meditation, I routinely updated a plug-in on my website, causing the entire site to crash, leaving only a message that said––and I kid you not––“Fatal Error.”
As she was getting set up for my exam, I reminded my senior student dentist about something from my last visit.
“Oh, I remember your teeth,” she said smiling, and then offered an almost embarrassing amount of praise.
You see, during that last visit, when it was time for the professor to pay his first inspection, after looking around my mouth he admonished his two students.
“Very nice work. But you really have to show me the patient’s teeth before you’ve cleaned them, not just after.”
“Actually we haven’t started yet,” was their reply. “He’s just doing an amazing job on his own.”
To be candid, never in my entire life have I felt more validated.
While the “Two Steps Forward” phrase always reminds me of Paula Abdul’s dance classic Opposites Attract, I was curious as to its origins.
Interestingly, although I found nothing remarkable about it beyond being a classic proverb of sorts, I did however come across that no less than Vladimir Lenin wrote a pamphlet in 1904 with the opposite title:
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back:
The Crisis in Our Party
And––quirky segue ahead––speaking of another Vlad, as promised, you’re invited to his birthday party next Sunday, March 3rd.
You can attend via the Zoom link HERE.
Note: There’s no reservation or sign-up process and thus, I’m not sending out any email reminders.
Note 2: Vlad’s birthday bash promises to be both no-frills and delightful.
We’ll definitely say hello, introduce Vlad (and Malibu), and then whatever puppy (and/or human) shenanigans that occur will simply unfold organically.
It’ll be a Big Brother style broadcast, in other words, or an Only Fans for the canine set.
I really hope you can swing by!
Sometimes we need the great poets to remind us that life is not a linear progression.
Indeed, I’ve always loved this poem of Rilke’s that imagines our journey not as even an up-and-down graph, but as a sphere.
Widening Circles
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
I like this thought very much, that rather than hopscotching back and forth through life, whether we’re a falcon, a storm, or a great song, rather than getting somewhere, our business is simply to expand symmetrically.
Circling back, I’m reminded of how Werner Herzog expresses a pessimism so hardcore and extreme that it actually becomes hilarious.
For example, he writes:
“As far as I’m concerned,the twentieth century, in its entirety, was a mistake.”
Even if that were the case, then there’s truly nowhere to go but up!
Speaking of which…
Ultimately, the resurrection of my website took a full 24 hours.
It also required nearly endless texts and IMs between myself, my website guy, and the hosting platform.
Then suddenly the platform was fully refreshed, as though nothing had ever gone wrong.
Time-consuming as it was, I don’t regret the experience, however.
Having decided on a theme and already recording next month’s meditation (not to mention my dental triumph), even with the crash I do indeed feel several steps ahead.
More than that, I’m also keenly aware of one of the great benefits about the step-back moment:
Only by having a circumstance repeat can you know if you have truly transformed.
These kind of setbacks are really the best barometer to measure our inner growth.
Indeed, from delinquent to star patient, my own dental journey proves that truth.
And that’s something I can truly smile about, proudly and cavity-free.
Namaste for Now,
