Wherever you go, there you are.

[Laura Corin]

I've never heard it before.

[elegantlion]

In the movie, Buckaroo Banzai is this modern Renaissance man who does everything from doctor to musician to space or was it an alternate reality or time traveling to save the world. It's his catchphrase, which comes across as ironic due to everything he does. 

 

It's a campy, cult movie with a dashing Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, and John Lithgow. You can not really be a sci-fi movie fan if you haven't seen the movie. 

[fraidycat]

Who is buckaroo banzai? Never heard of it.

 

Can’t watch the clip because it will wake up my husband, but I’ll try to do so tomorrow. Obviously this is some cultural generational something or other. Long story short - heard it a few times, couldn’t get what it was saying or why it needed to be said, and couldn’t draw out whatever meaning it was supposed to have. I’m pretty intuitive but this one is a big clunker for me. Apparently I’m a shade too rational and literal for this level of bad figurative language :lol:

 

And I’m honestly not being dense but... how does one try to run away from themselves? That’s perplexing too, and impossible. I get avoidance behaviors and self medicating, but is “running away from oneself†different?

By compulsively shopping instead of paying their bills.

 

By drinking every day after work to “forget†problems.

 

By going out and partying every weekend instead of dealing with their marriage and family.

 

By purchasing 1001 books/videos/courses on how to make xyz in their life better and acting on none of it.

 

Etc.

Edited February 5, 2018 by fraidycat

[poppy]

It’s an allusion that happens to come from something more modern than Shakespeare. It’s supposed to be d’uh because there is a humorous aspect to it to help highlight the more subtle message.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Bingo.

Could be a line out of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  It's a wittier version of "it is what it is".

[MysteryJen]

We said this all the time in high school. 

 

Artic Mama, I am so confused by your not understanding. Have you never known people who say, "Everything would be perfect if....I moved, had a ton of money, dyed my hair, got a new boyfriend, got a new job, finished school, etc.?" The point is that all of those things are outside. You, and all your perfections and imperfections of character and personality, are the only true constant in your life. You have to live with yourself and that doesn't change with location, money, or looks.

 

It could be a call to action or a call to acceptance, that's up to you.

[Zinnia]

BUT THAT’S NOT HOW PEOPLE ARE EXPLAINING IT HERE! This is why I am so confused. I can kind of hear it like that, but the previous posts are packing it with all sorts of meaning and overtones I can’t see at all. It is what it is has nothing to do with semi self destructive avoidance behaviors, escapism, identity crises, or jokes. WTH?!

 

I’m getting more lost, not less. And I’m bright and well read. But this must be what it feels like to be trying to learn metaphor and idioms in a language you didn’t grow up with. Because it makes NO sense and the explanations don’t actually match any meaning or context given for the words. I’m trying here, but you all are contradicting one another. GAH! It’s obviously a personal problem ðŸ§ðŸ˜£ðŸ¤¯

And even if you move to the Midwest, you'll still be confused. Cause wherever you go, there you are.

 

;)

[Vida Winter]

I will have to track down the movie, I’m always up for family cult sci fi. But the saying is still stupid and makes no sense to me. It’s a ‘does not compute’. Oh well.

 

You'd like the movie. I wouldn't read too much into the line though.

[hornblower]

BUT THAT’S NOT HOW PEOPLE ARE EXPLAINING IT HERE! This is why I am so confused. I can kind of hear it like that, but the previous posts are packing it with all sorts of meaning and overtones I can’t see at all. It is what it is has nothing to do with semi self destructive avoidance behaviors, escapism, identity crises, or jokes. WTH?!

 

I’m getting more lost, not less. And I’m bright and well read. But this must be what it feels like to be trying to learn metaphor and idioms in a language you didn’t grow up with. Because it makes NO sense and the explanations don’t actually match any meaning or context given for the words. I’m trying here, but you all are contradicting one another. GAH!

 

 

Because for many of us it's about a book & what the book is about.

 

 Jon Kabat-Zinn Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

 

The book came out first in 94 or 95 ? So for me it's been over 20 years of this phrase being a touchstone to center oneself in being and in the moment. 

 

Here is Jon's website: https://www.mindfulnesscds.com/

 

Also, are you familiar with the concept of a koan? Because I think fundamentally this is what this phrase is. 

 

 

I've never seen the movie people are referencing. 

[Matryoshka]

Apparently! I didn’t move expecting to change anything about me, or because I didn’t like me, wanted to run away, needed to make excuses, etc. Even when I did move to Alaska it was a circumstance thing that needed to change and so I fixed it, not an identity crisis, escapism, or avoidance of anything.

 

People actually do that with the intention of changing the essence of who they are? How does one become that self deceived? I always thought that notion was hyperbole, nobody actually believed that they could put lipstick on the pig and become a princess, right? That’s the most inane and ignorant thing I’ve heard in a long time.

 

Yes.  People do that all the time.  Look at that lady who wrote Eat, Pray, Love.  Okay, I haven't actually read the book or watched the movie :lol: but from many reviews I've read, she puts it out there that she left her shallow US life and went and went to exotic locations and meditated and ate great food - and somehow that's supposed to have given her some deep spiritual awakening - but from many reviews I've read, she's just as whiny and shallow and entitled as ever.  Because no matter where you go, there you are.  

 

I'm a bloom where you're planted kinda girl, so I get not getting the impulse that leads people to do this, but maybe that's also why I like the witty warning against such silly behavior. ;)

[scholastica]

Never read that book or saw that movie either. It looked utterly idiotic. I avoid stuff like that like the plague. If it is on Oprah I’m automatically backing away quickly :lol:

 

That explanation actually sort of makes sense with that example though. I’m also a bloom where you are planted kind of girl, and don’t believe the essence of a person can change outside of supernatural intervention (regeneration), so maybe that’s some of the block I have on this. You can change your thoughts and actions and circumstances, but your soul is immutable. Why would you even want to change that? Attitudes and habits? Sure. I’ve never really understood the “I lost myself†comments either though. I get that some people feel like their day to day life doesn’t match their dreams and that gets them all whiny and depressed, but you can’t actually lose your identity short of a head injury and amnesia. You just might be living more or less in a way that you feel reflects what you value.

 

Clear as mud?

It’s not about identity so much as not recognizing that a lot of what a person perceives are problems caused by other people or outside circumstances are actually connected to their own bad choices/habits. They think their lives will be perfect if only all those people/circumstances were different.

[hornblower]

Never heard of the book or koan. I was in third grade in 94. I’m also not a fan of mindfulness as it’s own practice, compared to a means to an end. I think there is some good and a lot of silliness wrapped up in those sorts of practices, so that could be why I haven’t come across it.

 

I don't know if you're meaning it to come across this way but I think some of your comments are veering into ...um rude? hurtful? 

 

Flip this around & have a thread where someone talks about a psalm or a sentence from the bible or another holy book or the chapter & verse reference in their sig line and someone wades in & says "people find meaning in this? I don't get it.  It's just silly nonsense!  Oh, it's from some spiritual thing? That explains it. I steer clear of such stuff."   That wouldn't really be polite or need saying. One might think it but one wouldn't just say it. 

 

A koan btw is a pretty fundamental concept in Zen Buddhism.

 

& while mindfulness meditation is often a secular practice, it doesn't have to be and many people consider it a spiritual practice and either way, find it deeply important. 

 

 

[VaKim]

I've only read it and never was quite sure what it meant. Guess I learned something new. Again. :-)

[Scarlett]

I was just curious if many had heard and or used the phrase. I see many have.  Some have a slightly different take on it than I always have, but not much.  

 

My dh didn't seem to know what I was really trying to say about it. 

[Ausmumof3]

I feel like I've heard it in a song somewhere and not that 80s one. Can't place it though.

[Annie G]

Never heard of that movie. If I've heard the saying before I don't remember it. 

I've read through the thread and still don't get it. I think I need to see the movie to understand. At least I hope that's it...I'm feeling kind of dumb for not being able to grok it. 

Edited February 6, 2018 by Annie G

[Vida Winter]

The movie didn’t help at all. He said it once, maybe twice? Parts of the dialogue were hard to hear. But the context is bizarre - the twin of his (dead?) ex wife is bawling and contemplating suicide in a night club in Jersey. And he says it over the mic, in a really creepy and perplexing way, trying to comfort her in her *cough*melodrama*cough* misery.

 

If that is the only context it’s in, I can see why I missed it. I love quirky comedy and genre mashups but that is an hour and a half of my life I’ll never get back.

 

Aww. Sorry you didn't like it. I saw it when it was first released - it is a weird movie but there are a lot of good memories associated with it from the movie and that time in my life. I love that Peter Weller is a rockstar/surgeon/scientist/crimefighter etc...and his cohorts are such an odd assorted crew.

[Caroline]

Aww. Sorry you didn't like it. I saw it when it was first released - it is a weird movie but there are a lot of good memories associated with it from the movie and that time in my life. I love that Peter Weller is a rockstar/surgeon/scientist/crimefighter etc...and his cohorts are such an odd assorted crew.

I feel the same. It’s from a fun time in my life, and I have good memories associated with it.

 

I also think the saying makes sense.

 

Oh well.

[poppy]

Aww. Sorry you didn't like it. I saw it when it was first released - it is a weird movie but there are a lot of good memories associated with it from the movie and that time in my life. I love that Peter Weller is a rockstar/surgeon/scientist/crimefighter etc...and his cohorts are such an odd assorted crew.

 

It's  a campy satirical action comedy that trusts the audience to keep up.  I admire the commitment to ridiculousness, the leap of faith in making this film.  The world would be a worse place without movies that take risks.

[Vida Winter]

Well I own it now so I may watch it again with some alcohol and see if it improves. I love bad cinema, but I was gearing up for something awesome rather than awesomely awful :lol:

 

It reminds me a little of Rocky Horror or Strange Brew. Both of which I love. But it was just SOOOO weird and disjointed :p

 

Hey maybe you would like UHF starring Weird Al Yankovik. That's another bad cinema favorite around here!

[PrincessMommy]

It's  a campy satirical action comedy that trusts the audience to keep up.  I admire the commitment to ridiculousness, the leap of faith in making this film.  The world would be a worse place without movies that take risks.

 

It so funny too.  Plus, it's got John Lithgow... What a great performance.

[J-rap]

I've certainly read it often enough, but have never actually heard a regular person speak it.

[sarasue7272]

I’ve never seen, or heard of, that movie and I know this saying. For reference, I started eighth grade in 1994. Maybe this is regional? There are lots of strange regional idioms.