The pile of shit metaphor

[Inspired to write this by the girl with the cherry earings]

This applies to a lot of situations, but I made this up when the relationship with my ex was like: I loved him, he sort of loved me but he didn't, and he was not determined enough to let me go and, more importantly, I was not able to let him go.

I saw myself in our relationship like a person (with unlimited forearm strength - haha), hanging from a steel bar, very very high above an bottomless pile of very smelly shit. Green-brown in color if you must know.

My problem was this:

• The air around me was putrid because of the bottomless pile of shit I was hovering above.


• The fall was scary because I was very high above the bottomless pile of shit.


• The shiny and sturdy stainlessess steel bar was my only hope in life. I had limitless forearm strength! The bar defined who I was, what I liked, what i didn't like, our common friends, what I would do for dinner, my vacation plans, my traveling plans, our pile of memories, promises to other friends about traveling plans etc.


• The prospect of drowning in that bottomless pile of shit was not at all exciting.

The thing is, the scariest part is actually letting go. And vowing not to re-grab that particular stainless steel bar ever again. The fall was quick and the bottomless pile of shit actually had a bottom. And when I did hit it, I used my legs to push me up. I floated on various debris until I reached land, and that was that.

Although I have to be honest now and say here that I did not let go of the bar by myself that particular time, I used this metaphor to guide me in letting go many many times and in various situations.

Morale of the story is this: swimming in shit for a limited amount of time is better than smelling shit forever.