"Flipping it" is about taking a situation that you hate and making it something you can tolerate or even like. I learned about this very valuable tool from what some would say an unlikely source: Tom Green. Tom Green of "Freddy Got Fingered," Tom Green who is famous for interviewing people with a piece of shit on the end of his microphone and many other hilarious and juevenile tv stunts. He talked about flipping it in an interview in Rolling Stone in 2001. He said when he first found out that he had testicular cancer, he was horrified of the public finding out. He thought no one would ever find him funny again. "No one finds sick people funny," he thought. But instead of freaking out, he flipped it and made the now infamous Cancer Special Show where he had television crews follow him around pre-surgery, right up until he went "under" and as soon as he got out. He even had his TV cohost feel up the removed testicles on camera while he was in post-op. Tom Green totally effectively flipped the worst thing that ever happened to him and made it something funny.
Flipping it is truly one of the most inspirational and important tools for dealing with this extremely testy situation called life, that i have ever come across.
I flipped it recently, but i have been unsuccessful in sustaining the flip. What i'm wondering is, are there other elements at work here? What if I really just don't like the situation and for good reasons? What if flipping it is lying? How do I know? What if I attempt a flip and later take it back? What are the chances that my intuition is telling me something else and I should listen to it?
Dammit. I thought flipping it was infallible. Now I'm not so sure.
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