A Poetic Rendition of Irrational Thinking
Albert Ellis, PhD
NPR: All Things Considered
- Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
warning: strong language
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It is better
To almost never
Say never.
It’s not that you should or shouldn’t;
Just that it is better..
Not that you can’t.
You most certainly can.
Not that you have to.
You surely do not.
It’s just that it’s better
To almost never
Say never.
And, it is better
To hardly ever
Say always.
It’s not that you should or shouldn’t,
It’s just better that you don’t.
Not that you absolutely
Cannot ever say always
Just that it’s better said
Hardly ever.
For how many things really
Are always and never?
Sometimes perhaps,
Or even a lot,
Maybe rarely,
But hardly ever
Always or never.
Should is another
That’s better not said
For too many shoulds
Will fluck up your head
And bring you down
With the talk of the town.
For should is a shaming word
That according to Ellis*
Goes from should hood to shit hood
In a minute or less
And leaves you feeling quite a mess.
Perhaps it would be better,
But almost never should it.
If I should do this and shouldn’t that
Shame fills the space beneath my hat,
For if I should but don’t
What am I but a nothing?
And if I shouldn’t but I do
I am nothing but a fool.
So better not to should on yourself
And leave the “should” word on the shelf,
Far, far away from yourself.
Let’s move on to either and or,
And leave these words outside the door.
Either and or
When I am thinking
Will limit my choices
To just the two,
Either and or,
And just ignore
That fact that there are plenty more
Between either and or
That are probably better
Than either and or
And certainly more
Than either and or.
Let’s not forget
All or nothing
That tells me lies about my choices;
That there are only the two:
All or nothing,
And if I can’t have it all,
Then I don’t want nothin’.
The truth of the matter is
That some
A little
A few
Several
Many
And more
Can be better than nothing
Though clearly not all.
And doesn’t make me a nothing
But someone who got a few; but not all.
Like should hood leads to shit hood
Must and have to are….
Musterbations of the mind,
According to Master Ellis,
The father of the rational mind.
When we tell ourselves we must and have to
And really we only prefer to,
We’re creating a great deal of stress
That’s imaginary at best,
And irrational, according to Ellis.
Feel the difference between have to and choose to
And that between must and want to.
No one wants to have to.
We all would like to choose to.
And even if I truly am forced to
I still can choose the how to.
Seeing people and things
As all good or all bad
Is another mistake that will
Mess with your head –
Especially when the person is dead
And all we have of them
Is what’s in our head.
No one is as perfectly good as a god,
Or as totally bad as a demon might be.
We all are imperfect
Yet not entirely flawed
And we all have some good,
Still, we are not God.
When I see you as all bad
And you try to do good
I might conclude
that while your deed is good
Your motive is not
And condemn you to hell
With the rest of your lot.
When you are all good to me,
I hold you on a pedestal
Til I see the inevitable flaw.
Then I open the trap door
On your pedestal floor
And watch you hang
From the gallows where you once were adored.
And condemn you to hell
Though I am not the Lord.
So whether you are demonized or deified
Your fate is just the same
When my mind is not so sane.
If in my head I awfulize
And catastrophize
A thing that is only unfortunate;
Not horrible or awful
Or the end of the world,
I’ll likely catch can’t-standitis;
A fate much worse than hepatitis,
Where I simply can’t stand it anymore,
And have to run to the nearest door,
To escape a drama
That only exists
In a mind that’s sore
From awful cysts.
I can drown my sorrow in a bottle of gin
That’ll keep me from feeling such dread again
At least until the gin takes over.
Then I can feast on awful again,
And drink myself to oblivion.
Where my thoughts go
My heart and feet will follow
If I am depressing myself
Or making me panic
Be assured my thoughts are frantically
Filled with fear and sorrow
Because of a should
Always or never
Either or
Must or have to
That can be replaced
With something more rational
That will help me feel
A bit more stable
And make choices that are responsible.