Episode 45 - Tag, You're It!
The 2019 Cecil B. deMille award recipient at the Golden Globes Award gathering was Jeff Bridges. His acceptance speech was epic, fascinatingly authentic and replete with joy and wisdom. He inspired everyone to be who they were created to be and reminded us that we can make a huge difference in small ways. In this episode we share our experience of the wisdom of "Tag, you're it!" and living as a trim tab.
NOTES:
You really need to watch the video of the speech to get the full impression. I didn't do it much justice just reading it! Here is a link to the youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsWQARXR0ig
Also, while I said that he seemed 'unprepared,' what I really meant is his words weren't scripted. It was so refreshing!
Excerpts from Jeff Bridges Speech:
“I can remember going into his office the day before we started shooting, and I said to him, ‘Mike, man, I’m sorry but I think you made a terrible mistake. I’m not feeling this guy at all. I feel so inadequate, I’m giving you late notice I know, but please fire me,'” Bridges said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Jeff, you know the game tag?’ I say yeah. He says, ‘You’re it. You’re the guy, you couldn’t make a mistake if you wanted to.’ I said, ‘Alright, that’s a wonderful vote of confidence and a great perspective to look at this thing.’ I used it in that film, and all the other movies I’ve done, as well as my life. I’ve been tagged. We’ve all been tagged, right? We’re all alive right here, right now. This is happening! We’re alive, man!”
He then connected this to an observation/teaching of architect, inventor, and philosopher, Buckminster Fuller. about how individuals can affect society.
“Bucky is most famous for the geodesic dome, but he made this great observation about ocean-going tankards. He noticed that the engineers were particularly challenged by how to turn this thing. You’ve got this big rudder, so it took too much energy to turn the ship. So they came up with a brilliant idea: Let’s put a little rudder on the big rudder. The little rudder will turn the big rudder, the big rudder will turn the ship. That little rudder’s called a trim tab,” Bridges said. “Bucky made the analogy that the trim tab is an example of how the individual is connected to society, and how we affect society. I like to think of myself as a trim tab, and all of us are trim tabs. We may seem like we’re not up to the task, but we are, man! We’re alive! We can make a difference! We can turn this ship in the way we want to go, man! Towards love and creating a healthy planet for all of us. So I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press for tagging me. I want to tag you all. You’re all trim tabs! Tag, you’re it!”
What is a trim tab? It is a small mechanism that helps stabilize an enormous ship or aircraft. It transmutes the minute into the momentous in transformation and growth.
Buckminster Fuller: "Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Elizabeth — the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, “Call me Trim Tab.”
"The truth is that you get the low pressure to do things, rather than getting on the other side and trying to push the bow of the ship around. And you build that low pressure by getting rid of a little nonsense, getting rid of things that don’t work and aren’t true until you start to get that trim-tab motion. It works every time. That’s the grand strategy you’re going for. So I’m positive that what you do with yourself, just the little things you do yourself, these are the things that count. To be a real trim tab, you’ve got to start with yourself, and soon you’ll feel that low pressure, and suddenly things begin to work in a beautiful way. Of course, they happen only when you’re dealing with really great integrity."
Buckminster Fuller's tombstone:
When does the 'ship seem too big to turn' in our lives?
When we are overwhelmed by the enormity of the movement of a greater force (society, governments, management, authority, social agreements, etc.)
Also when we are in a position to act but feel inadequate, not prepared, etc.
Trim tab can be our (seemingly small) consciousness, vibration, energy, personal action, agreement, idea, contribution
Dialogue Questions
Tag. You're it. You are the one to do this job (to live this life) here on Earth. Now. You can't fail.
What does it mean to you? How does it impact how you live your life going forward?
When you feel overwhelmed by what seems like an insurmountable wave or by something that feels like it is too big to handle (i.e. not me!)… remember you are a trim tab.
Do you understand your power as a trim tab? How have you been this or how can you be this?
Affirmation
In the fullness of time all that is for my highest Good comes to me. God is my Source and Supply. When I accept this Truth, envy is dissolved and ceases to exist in me. As I grow in spiritual awareness I know that the Divine plan for me is Good and only Good. I give thanks that others have received their Good and I know there are blessings for everyone.