“You don’t have to be everyone’s cup of tea. Be a laxative. Move people. Cleanse them.”

– Unknown

Stumbling across these words a few days ago, my 12-year-old mind chuckled and constructed crude, unprintable stories.

I’ve gotten used to this piece of my brain, so I mostly just let him run – in the background, quietly. He sees things differently, maybe not so seriously and maybe more honestly. He doesn’t care too much about things that don’t matter, but he cares very much for things that do. I’m not sure why I’m using a third person voice, but he probably doesn’t care about that, either. He might be wise beyond his years in this way. 

Anyhoo…I love this quote. I love the creative irreverence and the soul of it that fits. It feels like a nice find, an unexpected surprise gift that made me smile and think. These are my favorite ones. I like the ideas of moving people and cleansing them, too. 

In considering this quote, I think the “move people” piece implies addition. We add the values of thought and care and even love to move them in body or mind or heart. We can inspire the swollen smiles of true joy. And we can show up with our own hearts wide open to catch the falling tears of life’s hard days. We can look into the eyes dropping the tears and move them to feel seen and safe. Adding these things are nice and sometimes important moves to make.

On the other hand, cleansing people is more subtraction. Sometimes, it’s permission to release, to let go, or let be the troublesome things. Our permission is not required for this, but our sanction feels like a safe spot to fall. The knowledge of a safety net or a security blanket makes hard leaps feel less risky and letting go of things less death-defying. It’s all just life, and sometimes it’s beautiful and sometimes it sucks. Accepting this paradox as true feels clean and right. 

Sitting in my yellow chair at twilight, I’m pretty sure that I’d rather be a laxative than everyone’s cup of tea. Everyone’s cup of tea is really no one’s cup of tea. The watering down of the soul’s expression to fit everyone’s preference or tolerance sounds terrible to me. I’ll stick with the few lucky or unlucky human spirits to move and cleanse and dance and know and feel deeply and laugh and believe true things with. I think this is a good way to go.

I never thought I’d be making a case for laxatives when I woke up this morning, but life is strange. And I’ll take it.

Dave Markwell is a life-long Des Moines liver and lover. Former owner of Waterland CrossFit and the Waterland Arcade, Dave uses his unique story-telling voice to help small businesses tell a better story, and his love for people to help folks live bigger and better lives. For more info, check out his website: wordsbydave.net