Chapter 7

Go with Your Gut

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go
together.

–AFRICAN    PROVERB

We humans have known since time immemorial something
that science is only now discovering: our gut feeling is
responsible in no small measure for how we feel. We are
“scared shitless” or we can be “shitting ourselves” with fear.
If we don’t manage to complete a job, we can’t get our “ass
in gear.” We “swallow” our disappointment and need time
to “digest” a defeat. A nasty comment leaves a “bad taste in
our mouth.” When we fall in love, we get “butterflies in our
stomach.”

–GIULIA ENDERS, GUT

If you’re like most people, the thought of a collection of
trillions of bacterial cells living inside of you may be
enough to make you want to run for the closest shower. The
implicit “ick factor” is compounded by the fact that we live
in a culture that seizes every opportunity to sell us
antibacterial soaps and sanitizers. But the truth is, we’ve