The Scene In Which I Get Shit On

Sometimes, I wonder if we as a society lessen the impact of certain words, when we use them to mean things they don't actually mean. Today's word is SHIT. So many possibilites.

That's shit. As in literally, there's some stuff on the ground there, and it's shit.

That's shit. As in, that's sucky. Which is just another example, really.

You're shitting me. A la Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama."
"Are you shitting me?"
"You know, I've never actually understood that expression, but no. I am not shitting you."

You're shitting me. As in....actually, you can put your own literal description there.

And then my favorite, and the reason for posting today.

I got shit on.

Sometimes, dears, this can mean innocuous things. My boss called me out. My girlfriend found someone else. My best friend is dating my girlfriend.

And then it can be literal.

Ohhhhhh can it be literal.

You see, recently I hung a bird feeder from a low branch of my cherry tree. The National Wildlife Federation has this amazing program where, if you meet a certain amount of requirements, you can have your yard certified as an official animal sanctuary. Being somewhat of a conservation geek, this appeals to me. So when I landscaped last year, I chose a variety of Indiana native plants that would be easy to care for, and I chose plants that would provide habitats and food for native animals. The NWF requires at least two feeding sources (cherry tree and coneflower plants, check) but also notes that you can supplement feeding with things like bird feeders. Since the coneflower won't bloom for awhile, I decided to go that route.

And it has been fantastic. I've got all kinds of birds and even some squirrels now. They've gotten used to me (and figured out that Finn is pretty much blind and won't chase them) and they will fly to the feeder in the cherry tree when I'm sitting on the porch swing.

But then today, I leashed up Finn, plus the two dogs staying with us this week, grabbed the necessary bags (back to "That's Shit" example), and headed out. And Then. It. Happened.

I got shit on.

The strangest part was, as startling it was and as gross as it was, it didn't really change the course of life all that much for me. To be honest, and this may be a little TMI, I wiped my arm (shit-site) on my yard-work-dirtied-jeans, made a face, and moved on with my life. Yes, life doesn't always go the way we've planned, and sometimes the beautiful songbirds that enrich my life otherwise are going to startle from the tree and shit on my arm. Sometimes I'm not going to agree with my boss, or my coworkers. Sometimes I'm going to screw up and get called out on it. Sometimes things aren't going to go as planned. The point is, I can't let those things slow me down. I'm not going to let a single shitcident keep me from enjoying the cardinal's song.

After all....

Shit happens.