Analyzing "Just take it easy, Man"

"Just take it easy, Man" is a statement and, as we know, a fundamental belief of our Church. But it should not be taken lightly. An analysis is necessary. Let's break this sentence into pieces.

Just. This word can have several injunctions. Either time. Like in "Just married". Which means that the wedding took place a short while ago. Perhaps an hour ago. Or the next morning, after a torrid wedding night, and the couple drives off in a car with all the empy cans attached to it and with the signboard indicating that they were "just married". So, the time lap is upto 12 hours. Short. But it can also mean something simple. Like "just put it down here" or "Why don't you simply shut up". In our statement "Just" has the right place because it refers to both time and simplicity.

Take. Take and give. To give is better than to take. Both can be put together with "Just". I will just take it from you but later I just will give it back to you. But we are struggling in life and we don't take it easy. And we are simply unable to do something and sit shaking in a corner. Because we don't take it. Here we have to be tough and simply think about our well being and so we "just take". What?

It. That is what we take. It. Not him or her. No, it. It is "just" there to "take". "Just take it" has limits. We cannot just take a car which parked along the road side. We cannot just take a pearl collar hanging around the neck of a lady. We can just can take many things, but it is for us, as individual, to decide what our personal decency puts a meaning for "it" just to be taken.

Easy. For this one there is not much to say. Easy is simply easy though we have a lot of people making easy things difficult and complicated. And then, when it comes to money, it is often easily come and easily gone. And people have often the tendency of making easy things complicated things.

Man. This is the most difficult one. If we say "Just take it easy, Man" we have all the women on our back saying "And, we, can we not take it easy too?". And we are in the midst of this "gender topic" which has grown to become more and more important in last few decades. I have no intention on starting a discussion on this and I want to remain down to earth. With James Brown, we know that this is a man's world and that it would be nothing without a woman. On the other hand, when we talk about evolution, the past, the future and human beings in general, we refer to it as "mankind" and not as "womankind". This is my main argument to say that "Just take it easy, Man" goes for both men and women. We could change it and say "Just take it easy, Dude". "Dude" can go for both men and women. But we want everybody to "Just take it easy" even if they are not Dudeists.

So "Just take it easy, Man" goes for everybody. Your man, your woman and even your Golden Retriever.

And if you are not comfortable with all this, simply say "Just take it easy" and replace "man" with the person's name.

More than One BIS (and something repaired)

If I were a Catholic I would now exclaim "HALLELUJAH". But I am a Dudeist. So, I don't really know what I should exclaim. But I will find out. So, for the time being let me exclaim: "YEAH, MAN".

On this blog and on my Squidoo page on Dudeism I have been talking about our founders, the Dudely Lama Oliver Benjamin and the Arch Dude Dwayne Eutsey. I had a picture of our Dudely Lama but on my post "More than One" of a few weeks ago I was introducing our Arch Dude. I could no find a photo of him and I put an anomymous face with a question mark.

The Arch Dude saw this and felt my distrress and turmoil. Which obviously has mis-carried me away from our fundamental belief "Just take it easy, Man". He thought that it was important to bring me back to the right path and in his pity for me, he sent me a picture of him authorising me to use it.

And so, Fellow Dudeist, sympathizers of Dudeism, would and could be members of The Church of the Latter-Day Dude, it is my pleasure to have on my Chapel the photo of  His Arch Dudeship.

A Scandinavian Dude

I have a friend. He is also working as a humanitarian aid worker. To respect his privacy, I just will be general. We are working for the same organisation, now in different countries but on the same continent. When we worked together, I had to determine the need of food to be given every month to people in need and he saw to it that the food got there were it was needed.

He is not a member of our Church. But he is a perfect Dude. He hails from Scandinavia and he is a few years younger than me. But also in the categorie of "oldies" or slowly getting there. Like me, he is a freak of technology. He is very well versed in computer issues and when it comes to mobile communication we are on the same line.

We were living together in the same house at a certain time. Drinking beer in the evening, after our hard work, and relaxing in a Dudeist manner.

We thought the same way, had the same opinions on practically everything. But one day, he really showed me that he was steps ahead of me. Our house was very popular on weekends. Almost every Saturday we had people. And one day we decided to make a Margeritha party. I said to him that he was crazy, how the hell will we make and serve Margerithas to all the people that will come.Because when we made a party we had a lot of people coming. He said that I should not worry. He had the solution.

So we set out to buy all the ingredients mainly the alcohol. I don't remember how many bottles but I guess it was 10 liters. I still worried on how we will quench our guests thirsts with Margerithas. Then he brought out buckets (why?) and poured everything in them and stirred the mixture. I got a bit tired and went for a nap. When I came back, I found this:

Our water dispenser. Full of Margeritha. 20 liters. Well, to make the long story short: The party was a succes. When it was finished, the dispenser was empty. Except for the little quantity that stays in the machine. When we got up in the morning, the house cleaner came to us to say that there was something wrong with the dispenser, the water had a very funny taste.

The dispenser solution is the proof that my friend can "Just take it easy, Man".

There are so many Dudes in this world and they don't realise that they are. As Priest of our Church it is our duty to let them discover it.

PS. On the photo above we know who the guy on the right is, our Dude. The one on the left is not my friend.

More than One

Well, it is embarrasing. I could not find a picture of our second HIM. Of course, I could have snatched the one he has on facebook. But I did not feel comfortable about it. I will though continue to search. So, the second HIM?

Dwayne Eutsey is our Arch Dude. He is running the Church with our founder. He is also the co-author of "The Abide Guide". And he founded our Monastic Order, the "Brotherhood Shamus". He is also a prolific contributor to The Dudespaper. Thanks to his Guidance, the Church has grown from 75,000 priest (when I joined) to over 150,000 now and worldwide.

Second HIM? I don't think that I should use "second". We just have HIM's: Our Dudely Lama and our Arch Dude.

They "Just take it easy". And me too.

Being Cool

This is HIM. Our Dudely Lama, the founder of The Church of the Latter-Day Dude, Mr Oliver Benjamin. In a cool pose. I found this photo in an article published by the German magazine "Der Spiegel" (equivalent of "Newsweek" or "Time Magazine"). The story tells us, among other things, that in 2009 Volkwagen even made a ad spot with our "chief" were he states that if we allow ourselves to be just a little bit Dude, we would contribute to make our world a little bit better.

I just came back from a field mission. A tough one. Both physically and mentally. Physically because I sat for hours in a car hitting extremely bad bush roads. Mentally because I had to talk to people in need, with high expectations and demands and I knew that I will not be able to fulfill them.

But I stayed cool. Because I know how to handle such situations and because the car was airconditioned.