Riding the tiger

Two interesting quotes, that speak to me as I travel the M.S. highway; one of them from a human, one from an animated character.First, the human: Rabbi Andrea Myers, in her blog on the Huffington Post said, "the phrase 'It Gets Better,' essential as it is, leaves me wanting more. It shouldn't just get better. Colds get better. Life should get beautiful -- and I hope, sometimes, hilarious."

I see that a life filled with "Comedy like this, you can't write" isn't a gift that only I receive. Or crave.

And the animated character: Major Motoko Kusanagi, as voiced in English by the amazing Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, opens the series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex by saying "If you don't like the world... change yourself."

That is the challenge I'm facing. Not the neurological nonsense, that's an irritant, that's the carrier for the lessons I'm being taught (more often, that I'm resisting being taught); the hard part is changing myself. Occasionally, I think I catch glimpses of what the change needs to be "about." But what to change? How to change?

Robert Heinlein said, "The way to ride the tiger is to hold onto its ears and try not to fall off." But I wonder... am I trying to steer the tiger? (It probably doesn't like that at all.) Am I supposed to hang on, yes, but rough ride or not, should I be enjoying the scenery more, enjoying the ride more?

Or is it that I'm supposed to stop trying to ride the tiger at all... to let its ears go, and slip off into... what, exactly?

Now, there's the real mystery.