“Do Be”
I remember a daytime TV program from my childhood. It was called “Romper Room”. It targeted preschool children younger than 5. It was franchised and syndicated from 1953 to 1994. The program had an oversized bumblebee as a mascot. His name was Mr. Do-Bee. His purpose was to teach the children proper behavior. He always started his sentences with “Do Bee”, as in the imperative “do be”; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romper_Room.
Thinking of “do be”: We are human beings. What one is doing is the product of being. As such, healthy doing follows healthy being. Logically then, unhealthy being leads to unhealthy doing. Perhaps we can take the advice from Romper Room’s Mr. Do Bee and correct some unhealthy beings and unhealthy doings and replace them with healthy beings and healthy doings. It would be really gratifying to start with “do be” and hear “well done”.
Unfortunately, some of us have been scripted with “don’t be”. Of course, “don’t be” is impossible. You cannot not be any more than you cannot not behave. You will be and do regardless the directive, since you cannot not be and cannot not do. The “don’t be” often becomes an unhealthy “be” by default. “Don’t be” influences, and can even dictate, whatever doing ensues. Re-read this paragraph from the beginning if you cannot get what was written. My hope is that you cannot not get my intended message.
Are you following me? Please “do be”. Let me share a “don’t do” which became a “don’t be” but did not help me with “do be” so I could “do do”. I remember my first date advice: “Don’t do anything you would be ashamed of.” “Don’t do” became a trigger for “don’t be” and don’t do”. So, the “I be” and the “I do” became my unhealthy “go-be” and “go do” because there was not a healthier directive to form a healthier “I be” to direct a healthier “I do”.
Did you get that? How nice to have healthy directives so as to develop a healthy “be” so to have context for a healthy “do”. In the words of Romper Room: “Be a ‘do be!’” How important that we discover who we are as human “beings” so that we can learn to engage in healthy human “doings”. Oh, to have the right seeds sown, on the right soil, to produce the right fruit. We can get this and even teach this! Do be! Do do! “Go be” and “Go do”!
Mediocre Meanderings 