how to dig yourself out

Photo by Tony Shepherd on Unsplash

Some say unburying yourself isn’t as easy as it sounds, but unlike underwater basket weaving or rubber duck debugging, it’s one of the best practical and spiritual exercises on earth. My first attempt was at Spadra Cemetery located under the 57 freeway down south. I saw an invalid pull herself out of some loamy soil and I thought, “Wait a minute…” then I decided to try it out myself. I suppose getting oneself buried is the difficult thing to do first, but we bury ourselves with vicissitudes of all kinds everyday. Chalk and silt clay are the easiest, but if you really want to get your chops, you need to try hard old caliche anywhere in the Southwest. And don’t even think about rock unless you’re beggin’ for the holy ghost to surprise you. The common misconception is to claw rapidly such that you can tear yourself free, but as I’ve experienced, it’s best to first wiggle, shimmy, and push before rabidly clawing from head to chest. Once you see daylight, it’s not unlike a restoration of life.