Who Is the Wise and Immortal Kunu?

With uncharacteristic optimism, I am assuming that sentient beings will eventually find their way to this blog and trudge their way through my feeble attempts at thought collection. In that spirit, it seems prudent to initiate this page with a bit of an explanation.

Some of you may immediately recognize Kunu, but may question my cognitive capacity or psychological stability for basing a blog on what you consider his "ramblings." Others may vaguely recall having seen him or hearing his sagelike wisdom, but can't quite recall the details. Still others, the majority, I imagine, have no idea on earth who Kunu is, and why anyone would launch their blog with an ode to him. It is for the benefit of all three of these groups I offer this post.

Without overstating the matter, I have to say quite simply that Kunu changed my life with a simple phrase:

"When life gives you lemons, just say, 'Fuck the lemons!' and bail!"

Let that startlingly simple yet provocatively non-cliché philosophical nugget percolate a little while before you read on. Mull a moment on the subtle implications of adopting this filter next time you're faced with a difficult life or career decision.

If you're anything like me, those decisions just might turn out a bit differently than those made under the typical (perhaps I should say "mainstream") paradigms people use at life's many complicated crossroads. What do I mean by that?

Typically, people operate under two assumptions. The first one is, "I have to maintain my current standard of living or better, or my life is worth exactly shit." The second is, "I have to acquiesce to the needs, wants, and whims of my employer or I will lose my job, and my life will be worth exactly shit" (see First Assumption above).

This second assumption is particularly common and heavily leveraged by employers in declining or stagnant economic conditions as we're currently experiencing. Also, it's often exaggerated by people's tendency to directly attach their identity and self worth to their occupation. But, I digress.

The two primary assumptions create a distorted decision making structure, which leads many people to spend numerous miserable years of their lives working at an unsatisfying, soul sucking job. Usually, that job is for an employer who sees them at best as a useful cog and at worst as a cost cutting opportunity. They hand you lemon after lemon - larger and larger workloads with fewer and fewer resources, longer days with less pay and perks, and so on - and demand that you make sweet, delicious lemonade - increased corporate revenue and profits, and probably fatter executive bonuses.

Oh, and where does the sugar come from? Your sweat, blood, and tears, of course. (Yes, yes, I know those are salty. Just track with the metaphor here.) The lemons could be "departmental restructuring," layoffs, forced relocation, or a thousand other perverse little curveballs that demand you keep in the race and make it all work out through your tenacity and endurance, your 'indefatigable human spirit!'

Then one day, you're either on the street searching for a new task master, or dead and buried. At that latter point your fears can be literally realized: your life is worth exactly shit.

So, how does Kunu's wisdom help us out of this predicament? Kunu asks us to consider the alternative: refuse to play along.

If they want lemonade, then they need to provide all of the ingredients, not just the lemons. You can willingly and enthusiastically do the mixing and serving. The profit making enterprise needs to provide the knife, sugar, spoon, and glasses - the clear vision and the necessary resources to accomplish it. You provide the hard work and ingenuity to help realize that vision by effectively maximizing those resources. Otherwise, tell them to fuck the lemons!

Of course, as many would argue, everyone needs to share the load in difficult economic times. (To clarify that point, this means everyone needs to share the load in difficult economic times, not just the rank and file.) Fortunately, in many well managed, balanced, and human-centric organizations, everyone does share the load. Teams from top to bottom pull together and everyone survives and succeeds together. If that's not the case, then bail! Life is too short and opportunities are too numerous for you to burn yourself out, unilaterally draining your vital energy for someone else's sweet, summertime refreshment.

Yes, "When life gives you lemons, just say, 'Fuck the lemons!' and bail!"

"Now, for the love of god!" you cry, "who the hell is Kunu?!"

Kunu is a character from the 2008 Apatow Productions film, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (written by Jason Segel). Brilliantly portrayed by actor Paul Rudd, Kunu (Chuck is his mainland name) is a burned out surfing instructor at a Hawaiian resort, whose enlightened perspective, along with that of several other resort staff members, helps main character Peter (Jason Segel) find his way toward realizing his true passion.

At this point, likely having lost all credibility with you, I can only thank you for staying with me this long. I hope you come back once in a while and see how I'm doing as I personally attempt to put Kunu's wisdom into practice.