Sunday, 18 August
 |
| Holiday Visit |
Good Morning Jessicca…
A whistle trails the Amtrak’s passage through the still night of China
Grove. Isolated pools shimmer on the wet
street beneath the occasional overhead lamp.
The traffic lights marking the center of town have no cause to change
from persistent green. A woman in T-shirt
and jeans leans against the café counter waiting for her oriental order to
go. Four young people crowd around the
cashier of the tobacco shop, stories swapped and laughter shared. The bearded old man guarding the sidewalk in
a yachting cap calls out a warning of final reckoning for sinners like me. It’s Saturday night and we each are caught in
the act of story-making our very own lives.
Imagine if I were to choose living life each day in the flesh, on the
scene of each event and living all things with only first-hand experience. Imagine if I were to ignore all opportunities
to resort to the printed wisdom of others for guidance. Imagine being able to decide my own course
corrections on the basis of feeling the pain of my own mistakes. Imagine becoming comfortable with taking
risks. Imagine controlling fear. Imagine each day a stage for unscripted
action. Where will this road take me and
who is it I will become following this path?
If you have only one thing to say then tell it to me. Tell it to everyone you feel needs to
hear. You do have something to say. It has to do with what you know to be
true. It is a truth you bring with you
each day you show up for life. It is your
personal conviction and you are bursting with the need to share it. Should it matter that I might think you to be
horribly wrong? Speak your piece. I am simply someone other than you. I can air my truth just as well. Each of us now has something to consider from
the other. We might find areas of
agreement. We might become excited; astonished
the other one of us could believe such thoughts. I study you.
You carefully study me. We share
the question, “Are you insane?”
Have you noticed how often reasonable people can find themselves in
heated disagreement? Why is it two
people’s careful reasoning can sometimes arrive at opposing conclusions? Of course, reasoning is a tool used to arrive
at a logical explanation. It involves an
orderly process of selecting what we consider to be the most significant facts
in order to render a result most closely matching our personal view of reality. Our reality is built upon the experiences of
our life – the accumulated lessons of our personal history. What could be more self-evidently true than
what it is that has been taught us from our earliest days? These life history truths have become the
very fabric of our own identity. Our most
fundamental beliefs go beyond intellect and are grounded in feeling. Two people are more likely to find agreement if
they share a background that is relevant to the development of their
belief. People with diverse, or
conflicting, backgrounds may well wonder at the reasonable basis of the other’s
argument. Disagreement on an issue can
be of such intensity that we each feel the other is attacking basic values that
have guided our lives. Such disputes
cannot help but become emotional.
There is a road that has been given our name and it is soon lost from
view once it reaches beyond the crest of the nearest hill. Following this road we are frequently
confronted by travelers whose own paths happen across ours at shared spaces in
time. They each provide us with an
opportunity to further define who it is we really are. Their own actions provide clues as to the possibilities
of human nature. They test us to learn
of our own potentials. Often it can be
nothing more than a greeting exchanged or an annoyance conveyed. Occasionally the lessons are such that paths
become intertwined. In these instances
it can be said we have chosen the tests that determine the nature of our own
character. Love of another can be its
reward. Falling in love can be
effortless. Maintaining love has to be
one of our most difficult trials. There
is probably no greater means for determining our own personal character.
We are strengthened by the love we convey. It survives us once we are gone.
Love,
Dad
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