On Manifestos, Dips, and YouTube

Somehow, for reasons only the mysterious algorithms know, several YouTube podcasts popped up on my TV screen with YouTube stars eager to talk to me about manifesting.  I always thought that manifesto sounded like a pasta dish and that manifesting was the verb for eating said pasta, but no.  Manifesting means:  establishing, demonstrating, displaying, revealing, showing, exhibiting, expressing, making plain.  And a manifesto is a platform, policy, strategy, philosophy, declaration, statement, program, proposal, plan, beliefs, or guidelines.

Mm-hmm.

According to the aforementioned podcasts that included the usual man-on-the-street-on-a-phone types as well as respected neurosurgeons, if I think of something good that I want, and I write it down, and I repeat it to myself over and over, what I have been contemplating will show itself in my actual factual life. 

My mother used to call that wishful thinking, and followed with the warning: “don’t wish your life away.” But it appears that when a neurosurgeon gets into wishful thinking, it is called manifesting, and it becomes science.  Perhaps a neurosurgeon’s extraordinary salary and connections help with the manifesting part, but I can’t say for sure.  I’ve never moved with that crowd.

While surfing these manifesting manifestos, I learned that the opposite of manifesting is hiding.  Now that was a revelation worthy of my time: I didn’t wish my life away, I was just well hidden!

In the next podcast fed to me by the algorithm, l learned there is something called “the dip.” Everything dips.  Each of us has to decide if we will quit at that point or go on.  If we choose to go on and weather the dip, we have to figure out “where to put the tired” until we rise from the dip. 

I don’t know about you, but I usually keep the dip in the refrigerator next to the leftover manifesto which is what I consume when I am tired.  Usually with chips.  And maybe some ice cream.  All of which I eat while watching YouTube videos the latest of which pointed out to me that we need more zest, which, again, I keep in the refrigerator next to the dip and the leftover manifesto. 

I learned some important lessons from all of this podcast watching.  First, my smart aleck devices are spying on me and the contents of my refrigerator. Second, I am either a hider or a quitter.  And third, there is a lot of money to be made on YouTube if you can come out of hiding, lose the tired, and survive the dip.
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Right now I am sorting through my refrigerator for inspiration, something worthy of manifestation. I feel on the verge of something big…it has something to do with yogurt and tofu.  But wait!  Is that manifestation or fermentation?  I don’t know.  There must be a podcast for that.  In any case, something is brewing.  Look for me soon on YouTube… if I survive the dip.