Oooooh boy. Deeeeeep breaths. We don’t know about you, but we’re huge fans of Grey’s Anatomy here at Illuminaughty Boutique, and… last night’s episode was hard. No spoilers here– we promise!– though we will let you know that Sandra Oh is apparently still alive and well. It was just really, really emotionally hard.
We all feel vulnerable right now. After all, we just lost our “person.” The question now becomes… how do we go on with life?
Mindfulness
The grieving process is hard. Don’t fight against it, though. It’s something we need to do– for us. Blocking out the pain doesn’t help us make it through the pain. Experts have all sorts of good ideas for learning how to find joy after loss, and to be honest, these suggestions would have been really handy to have had for last ten seasons of Greys:
- Meditation
- Self-care
- Journaling
- Creative expression
- Savoring simple pleasures
- Finding meaning in the loss
- Living well
One of our favorite stories from Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness is about a young monk who is assigned dishwashing duty. Every night an older monk comes and asks him why he is washing the dishes; at first, the young monk says, “To get them clean.” This is not the true answer. Next, he replies “Because you told me to.” Still not it. Finally, he answers, “I am washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” Only in accepting action for its own sake– and thus life for its own sake– is he able to find enlightenment in the mundane. Breathe because you are breathing, and you will be because you are.
Drug Use
Of course, in our fast-paced world, who has time for all that breathing horseshit? We need solutions, and we need them now. Why not practice better living through chemistry? Here are some substances you might explore* if you’re looking for a fast-track to mind expansion:
- LSD
- PCP
- DMT
- 2-CB
- MDMA
- Mescaline
- Mushrooms
- Spray Paint
- Redi-Whip
- Robitussin DM
* Illuminaughty Boutique is not responsible for any ensuing laughter, weeping, terror, heart palpitations, paranoia, hallucinatory gnomes, astral projection, feeling like you can take down a platoon of armed state troopers, nausea, projectile vomiting, out-of-body experiences, being dragged face-first into a K-hole, experiencing the whole of human history from the point of view of Rosa Parks, blasting off into outer space, burning up on re-entry, weightlessness, lightheadedness, death, death-related symptoms, or traveling to death and back and returning with forbidden knowledge. Trip-sitters are advised at all times.
Cults
Want to leave your grief and your sanity behind, but afraid to do drugs? A cult may be more up your alley. Cults free you of that pesky free will and allow you to follow along with the group. Sad about the end of this season of Grey’s? Not if the cult leader forbids it! We’re going to skip a list for this one, because we don’t want to slander anyone by putting them on a list with groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientologists, or Moonies.
Besides, if you’re a sufficiently-devoted Shonda Rhimes follower, you’re kind of in a cult anyway. Thus…
More Shonda Rhimes
Maybe we don’t need to move on at all? We’ll miss Cristina, but we still need to figure out how Meredith and Derek balance their (seemingly diverging) career interests, and while the intern drama started off kind of slow with this most recent batch, we’re starting to get to like them. Plus, there’s Scandal! *PLUS* there’s a new show in the works, How to Get Away with Murder. OH-MAN-OH-MAN-OH-MAN-OH-MAN-OH-MAN this is going to be awesome!
The real shonde? We have to wait until this fall for it all to start up again!
ADAM WEISHAUPT is a Professor of Law at the University of Ingolstadt. His hobbies include rationalism, masonry, and opposition to Kantian idealism.
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