Whole Living Today

Hakuna Matata

Although today’s post doesn’t tie into yesterday’s, it does relate to perspectives. And morals and ethics. And right and wrong. And what’s happening in our society.

The 4th of July my truck got rear ended in a “hit and run” accident in downtown Mystic. My vehicle was the 2nd one she hit. She was caught shortly after and changed additionally with driving under the influence. If she hit vehicles to cause that much damage and kept going, what is the chance she would even have known if she hit someone crossing the street? It could have been me going to my vehicle. Her case is going to a “plea”… I received a registered letter from her that I am assuming she wants me to accept a settlement, I haven’t picked the letter up yet. Drinking and driving is a serious issue and one that hits close to home for me… I lost two close friends this spring in a motorcycle accident, and they are not the first.

But, I’m also not into lawsuits, attorneys…

It came up this week that the State is going after the bar and probably bartender that served the couple on the motorcycle.

What about personal responsibility? Is there any left? Isn’t it easier to push the blame…

I do love my friends that lost their lives. They made a choice. They both lived life to the fullest. We all make choices. We are responsible for our choices. And our choices may affect others. We need to think about our choices. But, we need to live our lives…. yet with responsibility. And enjoy. Duality.

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And then today… at work. Downtown Mystic. Busy, waiting on a customer, I noticed a large group of people outside and a small commotion. Paying a little more attention, I realize several generations together, guessing at five. Visiting together. Another culture. Infant to Great Great Grandma…. who needed a rest, sitting in a lawn chair outside, a left-over from the art show this past weekend. Broken. Collapsing under her fragile, yet steadfast, matriarchal body. The aluminum frame twisted and tore underneath her, spilling her to the ground. [I didn’t know the chair was even there].

A son or grandson came in and wanted to know if it was our chair outside….

She was a little shaken from the fall but they were so sorry they broke what they thought was our chair…

Isn’t that a little different perspective?

“Anyone who lives in their own world is crazy. Like schizophrenics, psychopaths, maniacs. I mean people who are different from others.”

“Like you?”

“On the other hand,” Zedka continued, pretending not to have heard the remark, “you have Einstein, saying that there was no time or space, just a combination of the two. Or Columbus, insisting that on the other side of the world lay not an abyss but a continent. Or Edmund Hillary, convinced that a man could reach the top of Everest. Or the Beatles, who created an entirely different sort of music and dressed like people from another time. Those people– and thousands of others– all lived in their own world.”

This madwoman talks a lot of sense, thought Veronika, remembering stories her mother used to tell her about saints who swore they had spoken to Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Did they live in a world apart?

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“I’m going to tell you a story,” said Zedka. “A powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which all the inhabitants drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad.

“The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, which the magician had not managed to poison. The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health. The policemen and inspectors, however, had also drunk the poisoned water, and they thought the king’s decisions were absurd and resolved to take no notice of them.

“When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. They marched on the castle and called for his abdication.

“In despair the king prepared to step down from the throne, but the queen stopped him, saying: ‘Let us go and drink from the communal well. Then we will be the same as them.’

“And that was what they did: The king and the queen drank the water of madness and immediately began talking nonsense. Their subjects repented at once; now that the king was displaying such wisdom, why not allow him to continue ruling the country?

“The country continued to live in peace, although its inhabitants behaved very differently from those of its neighbors. And the king was able to govern until the end of his days.”

From Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho

Dare to live in your own world.

All That You Have Is Your Soul ~ Tracy Chapman