Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything that was stable and likely to last.
The stables of King Augeas are full of a shit-ton of shit – 30 years’ worth from 3,000 cows who aren’t slowing down – and Hercules says he can clean it all out in one day. Instead of grabbing a shovel and a wheelbarrow and beginning the impossible task of removing shit faster than it’s produced, Hercules reroutes two rivers through the stables and washes them clean in minutes. The moral of this story is that you are the stables, you are filled with and defined by the accumulated emotional shit of a lifetime, and removing it slower than you’re making it is never gonna get the job done.
