Stupid On Top Of Stupid

— body language by Weddie Thiên  —​

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So you did a dumb thing, a clunker, it's true,

A bungle, a fumble, a blunder or two.

You spilled it, you dropped it, you missed the whole mark,

You carried the flashlight and walked in the dark.

And then, oh then, you knew what to do,

You hollered out, "STUPID!" and aimed it at you.

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But stupid on stupid is stupid times two,

And nothing gets smarter from beating on you.

So get curious, curious, curious instead,

And keep a good friend in your own busy head.

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Now here is the thing that you might not have seen:

That word doesn't fix it, that word doesn't clean.

It sits on the mess and stomps on your toes,

It flattens the wondering right where it grows.

It answers no questions, it opens no doors,

It leaves you feeling more stuck than before.

It swipes the whole lesson, it charges a fee,

And what do you get? A sack full of debris.

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So ask it out loud, "Now, whatever went wrong?

What hurried me, worried me, hummed me along?

What did I not know? And what did I not see?

And what was I needing right then, inside me?"

Those questions have fingers, those questions have feet,

They might even find you a lesson to keep.

But guilting yourself just twirls you around,

Like a dog on a leash tied to the ground.

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And when someone else makes a mess of the day,

Don't reach for that label and toss it their way.

That label is heavy, that label is glue,

It sticks them in place, and it sticks you there too.

Bring respect to the room, bring a question, a chair,

Ask, "What were you facing? What happened back there?"

For nobody ever woke wiser or kind

From somebody stapling that word to their mind.

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Be your own best friend, the sort who stays near,

Who sits you right down when you're dripping with fear.

A friend would not shout, "You're a fool and a fake!"

A friend would say, "Come, let's look at this ache.

Let's turn the thing over, let's see what it shows,

There's always a reason, and always it goes

Back into something you needed or feared,

For needing and fearing are nothing to jeer."

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For stupid on stupid is stupid times two,

And nothing gets smarter from beating on you.

So get curious, curious, curious instead,

And keep a good friend in your own busy head.

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So the next time you stumble, the next time you flub,

Don't grab for that hammer, don't reach for that club.

Get curious slowly, get curious kind,

And out comes a lesson that blame couldn't find.

There's nothing so smart, and there's nothing so true,

As being a friend when the mess is on you,

And bringing that friendliness onward to others,

To strangers and neighbors and sisters and brothers.

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