(And How I Accidentally Discovered The Meaning Of The Universe)
So there I was, just a little kid hanging out at Auntie Mina's place for the day.
I'm sitting there with some paper and whatever art supplies she'd scrounged up for me, when suddenly...
I See It.
That gorgeous orange and yellow shag carpet from the 1970s.
And I'm telling you, it looked EXACTLY like wheat fields! Plus it had this incredible texture that would make my little drawing absolutely pop off the page (literally).
My six-year-old brain went into overdrive:
"This is it! This is what my masterpiece needs!"
But here's where it gets interesting...
I Knew It Was Wrong.
Oh man, did I know it was wrong. But that carpet was calling to me like a siren song. 🎶
So I'm sitting there, heart pounding, waiting for the perfect moment to make my move. The anticipation was killing me!
Finally, I sneak behind the couch with some scissors (don't ask me where I found them), and I start cutting these perfect little pieces of that beautiful shag.
Snip. Snip. Snip.
Then I glue them onto my artwork and...
Holy Crap!
It was AMAZING! Better than I'd even imagined!
I was so proud I had to show Auntie Mina immediately.
Big mistake.
Her face went from surprised to absolutely furious in about 0.2 seconds.
"WHERE did you get this material?" she demanded, pointing at my glued-on carpet pieces.
"Um...behind the couch?" I squeaked.
"YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO CUT THE CARPET!"
When Mom came to pick me up, Auntie Mina ratted me out faster than you could say "interior decorating disaster."
Mom shook her head and made me apologize (which I did), and I promised never to do it again.
But Here's The Thing Nobody Talks About...
That moment—standing there with my beautiful, forbidden artwork—I was living in the most perfect state of duality you can imagine.
I was simultaneously:
- Proud AND ashamed
- Creative AND destructive
- Right AND wrong
- An artist AND a criminal
And you know what? Both things were completely true at the same time.
This is what philosophers call "Unity in Duality" (though they use way more boring words to describe it).
The Universe's Dirty Little Secret
See, everything in existence is basically doing what I did with that carpet.
The universe started as ONE thing—pure, perfect, unified. Call it the Source, the Monad, God, or "that thing before everything went sideways."
But here's the kicker...
That perfect unity NEEDED to split itself apart to experience itself.
Think about it:
- You can't have light without darkness
- You can't have creation without destruction
- You can't have a masterpiece without pissing off your auntie
These opposites aren't fighting each other. They're dancing together in the most desperate, beautiful, chaotic tango you've ever seen.
My Carpet Crime Was Actually Sacred
When I cut that carpet, I was:
The Creator (making art) and The Destroyer (ruining property)
The Innocent (just a kid) and The Guilty (totally knew better)
The Artist (vision realized) and The Vandal (property damaged)
I wasn't one OR the other.
I was BOTH. At the exact same time.
And that's the whole point of existence, baby!
The Desperate Dance Back To Singularity
Here's where it gets really wild...
All those opposing forces? They're trying to get back together.
Good and evil, light and dark, creation and destruction—they're all doing this insane dance, trying to remember that they were never really separate in the first place.
It's like the universe looked at itself in the mirror one day and said:
"You know what? Being perfect and unified is boring as hell. Let's split into a billion pieces and see what happens!"
And then immediately regretted it and has been trying to put itself back together ever since.
My six-year-old self understood this instinctively.
I saw the potential in that carpet (unity) and I HAD to manifest it into reality (duality). The scissors were just the tool that allowed the One to become Many.
The Shadow Side Nobody Wants To Talk About
You want to know the really dark part?
Every act of creation requires destruction.
- That carpet had to be cut for the art to exist
- Auntie Mina's trust had to be violated for my vision to manifest
- My innocence had to die for my artistic consciousness to be born
This is what the ancient mystics understood: duality emerges when we create without full awareness of the consequences.
I didn't fully grasp that cutting the carpet would unleash Auntie Mina's wrath. I was creating from a place of limitation, not from the full consciousness of the Source.
And that's how we got this beautiful, terrible, magnificent mess we call reality.
So What's The Point Of All This?
The point is simple:
Stop trying to be just ONE thing.
You're not just good or bad, creative or destructive, right or wrong.
You're the whole damn spectrum, baby.
You're the unity AND the duality.
You're the carpet AND the scissors.
You're the masterpiece AND the crime scene.
And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can stop beating yourself up for being human...
...and start appreciating the desperate, beautiful dance you're doing back toward wholeness.
Just maybe don't cut anyone's carpet in the process.
(Or if you do, at least make sure that the art is sure as hell worth it!) 😉
Mahalo nui loa 🤙🏽
About the Author: Ðean is a multi-disciplinary creative professional who combines personal experience with self expression. After overcoming significant hidden and personal setbacks, he now helps others unblock creative freedoms that provide time access for their passions. His approach combines the Hawaiian principles of Kokua (helping others) and Ohana (family) with proven strategies to leverage states of being and release the flow, which ultimately expresses our own personal journey.
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