Get Stupid

Who does not know the snarky T-shirt that says “I’m with Stupid,” and its companion T-shirt, “I’m Stupid?”  Stupid is never a good thing. In Latin American cultures, its equivalent “estupido,” is a real insult.  Yet for the pilgrim, getting stupid is both inevitable and even desirable.

This is the fourth of five guideposts to Pilgrim Life

Like the first three, they begin with a story from my travels.

There I was on a bus going the wrong way in Qinhuangdao China.  I took the same bus to get to a place referred to as Lao Long Tou, Old Dragon Head.  It is the place where the Great Wall meets the sea and the guardpost at the end, which sticks out into the water really does look like a dragon head. 

After taking in the scene, including the beach with children dashing about, and seeing an entertainment pavilion a few hundred meters down the beach, I made my way back to the bus stop.  Only I got on the wrong bus. Rather I got on the right bus going the wrong way.

Well, That was Stupid

I thought, when the passing scene was unfamiliar.  Unable to read anything or ask anything, turning my phone over and over to figure out where I was.  I felt quite foolish.  To get off would add miles of walking, but what lay ahead?  Where would I end up?  

Eventually a familiar spot came into view.  When the bus stopped I got off.  I could walk from there.  The bus pulled away.  There was a supermarket across the street. Dinner beckoned. 

The Gift of Dumbstruck

Only when what we know turns out to be wrong, when we feel stupid and dumb, can we see beyond what we have been.

Becoming a parent did that for me.  I was dumbstruck by the arrival of this newborn, unable to express much less grasp what being a father meant.  On the other side, those who have been widowed are dumbstruck by that loss.  Whenever a profound change happens, we are at a loss for words, even thoughts.

As poet Mark Nepo said, “to journey and be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim.”  Transformation only happens when we let go of the ‘form’ we are in.  That can happen voluntarily, but most of the time it comes to us, as in parenting or widowing.

Dumbstruck is a gift for those who can imagine something beyond what was.  That’s what pilgrimage taught me, and what I must relearn again and again.

Get Stupid

Pilgrimage is a school for spiritual transformation, and getting stupid is one part of it.  Sometimes getting stupid is what got you lost.  Sometimes you get lost and then feel stupid for getting lost.  But stupid can happen anytime, and it will.

That’s why pilgrim life demands courage.  You may not be in physical danger but you will be in danger of being stupid.  Once you figure out that this is a good thing getting stupid becomes easier, even fun.