Meditation Day 2: Crash

“You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48

Today’s Reading: Matthew 5-7

Yesterday was an interesting day.

As some of you know I am a big fan of public transportation. I have been working in downtown LA for several years now and have relied exclusively on buses and trains to get me down there. Besides saving money I feel that riding the metro exposes me to a totally different Los Angeles. 

It is a true melting pot where business executives may sit next to the homeless, kids in skinny jeans stand chatting above single mothers with their children, gangsters bump elbows with law enforcement and military veterans. The metro has finally become part of the major veins and arteries to the heart of downtown.

There was a movie called Crash that came out several years ago. It was about Los Angeles and what happens when we are forced out of the bubbles of our manicured lawns and single passenger cars through chance interactions with other people. These types of crashes don’t typically happen on the metro, if not for any other reason than that everyone on the train voluntarily left their bubbles when they decided to take public transportation.

But yesterday there was such a crash, and I was right in the middle of the intersection where it happened.

I got on the Gold Line train to Pasadena arrived at union station at around six o’clock in the evening. I was tired and feeling drained and my back was hurting from sitting too long in a chair that is a bit too small. Because of how I felt I was highly motivated to find a seat. Before the trains come, experienced riders strategically place themselves on the platform where they expect the doors to open. It is a tricky mixture of politeness and gamesmanship; so sophisticated that new riders would never notice.

I stood more often than not the first several weeks I rode this train.

I arrived at the platform several minutes before the train so I was in an ideal position to hold down a prime spot. I chose the last door of the last train as I knew that there were two isolated seats facing each other at the end. I enjoy reading on the train and these seats are the best for that endeavor.

By the time the train came the platform was packed, but I didn’t mind. My strategic positioning paid off. I was one of the first three people on the already almost full car. I found my ideal seat, sat and opened my book. My back felt better, I felt better; life was grand.

There was a dude standing right above me holding the hand rail. He seemed like a current or reformed gangster of some sort but he was a nice fellow. We exchanged nodding hellos and I carried on about the business of reading my book.

Two stops later a disturbance occurred.

The doors opened and this loud exceptionally rude man entered the train. By now it was so full that it would be hard for anyone to walk the isles without the obligatory “excuses me” and “pardon me” with each step. But there were a few things different about this man.

He had no manners, offered no apologies, and he was blind.

Yep… dude was blind. He was the “cane with a red tip” kind of blind. Obviously everyone tried to help him wade through the crowd because it was impossible to navigate, even for the sighted, but he wasn’t having it. He literally screamed at every attempt to help. “Don’t tell me where to go I can figure it out!” Of course the fact that there literally was nowhere to go without help escaped him. So he pushed and shoved and tapped and elbowed his way through the perplexed crowd, stepping on several shoes and kicking even more shins. He passed the handicapped seats and headed to the end of the train where the gangster dude and I were.

As the young blind man reached us he slammed into dude so hard that it dislodged him from where he was standing. My man tried to help him by guiding him in the right direction.

“HANDS OFF! DON’T TOUCH ME! I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING.”

To which old buddy responded, “no you don’t… I’m just trying to help you.”

The blind man took a short break from bickering with the alleged gangster to punk me out of my seat.

“CAN I HAVE THIS SEAT!” he demanded.

Presented with the dilemma of protecting my manhood against the challenge of a blind man I decided to get up and let him have the seat.

Rude Blind Man: 1

Manhood and Pride: 0

I stood up and gave him my seat, careful not to tell him where it was because after all, he can see right...?

After bumbling around for a spell he figured it out and sat down. He then continued to fight with the annoyed man standing above him. They exchanged barbs for the better part of ten minutes while the other riders listened on. The gangsterish dude commented on how the blind man must be bitter about life because of how rude he was. The blind man retorted that he wasn’t bitter; as a matter of fact he is happy with his life. He has the best life ever.

More than a few of us were skeptical about the truth behind his words.

The conversation degenerated into terribleness on both sides. The only reason why they didn’t physically fight is because the same pride that made the sighted fellow stand up for himself against the blind dude is the same pride that would not allow him to beat the jerk to within an inch of his life.

The cold part about it is that the blind guy knew it… he used his blindness to bully everyone around him.

It was the strangest of sights. After about two or three minutes of trying to focus on my book I thought for a minute… maybe I’m supposed to learn something here. So I started listening and reflecting on what was happening. I’m still thinking about it but I did realize a few things.

Both the blind man and the irritated, sighted fellow were playing the same part in the same play. Both were bullies in their own right. The blind man used his blindness to command control on all of those around him. He used the pity that so offended him when folks tried to help against those very same people. When the perturbed, sighted fellow fought back he in turn verbally bullied the blind man as much as he could since he could not rain blows upon his countenance.

Finally the sighted fellow stopped as his rage dissipated enough to realize the pattern. He wanted to exit the play.

But the blind man wouldn’t let him. He continued to talk trash to him; and when he no longer got a response, he got on his phone and started loudly talking to some person on the other side about this rude jerk standing next to him and how he had prevailed over him in the recent struggle.

It was quite unbelievable.

From my front row seat I thought about who was right and who was wrong. I guess more accurately, about who was more right and who was more wrong. I sympathized with the sighted fellow. He was rudely bumped into. When he tried to help he was verbally abused by a man who comfortably hid behind his handicap. It seemed to me that it was an injustice that was unbearably foul. I understood why he fought back.

But he was wrong too. He shouldn’t have answered the call to arms. He should have just inoculated himself with love to ward off the blind man’s venom.

Or so I thought. I really don’t know.

That’s what I thought I was doing when I gave up my seat but maybe I just punked out. It’s not like the blind man couldn’t walk. Why was it any more difficult for him to stand than it was for me? He could hold on to the rail just like I did. But he shamed me out of my seat. I didn’t want to be the jerk on the train that wouldn’t give his seat to a blind man. There’s no way that looks right.

In the end I was happy that I didn’t take the blind man’s invitation to the drama of his life. It was as sad a display of humanity as it was maddeningly complex. I am convinced that turning the other cheek was the right move here. Even the furious fellow who decided to fight with him ended up doing the same, at a higher cost to his pride.

It’s just annoying that some people push us to these extremes.

Today’s Meals:

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs

Snack: Mixed roasted nuts

Lunch: Home grilled chicken thighs and green beans (leftovers)

Snack: More nuts

Dinner: Pan seared rare albacore tuna and green beans

Beverage of the day… Water

Crisis of Leadership

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. John 10: 11-13

Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 1-3; John 10:1-23

A friend of mine on Facebook posted this article from the Wall Street Journal yesterday. In it, the author suggests that there is going to be a huge economic crash in 2011 because Obama is not going to extend the Bush tax cuts. The rationale is that since the wealthy are aware that taxes will increase significantly next year they are taking all of their profits in 2010 to avoid it and will have a higher percentage of their assets in non-taxable entities come 2011 and beyond.

Based on this logic the author argues that 2010 economic numbers are deceivingly high and the 2011 numbers will be exceptionally low causing a double dip economic hit…

Eh…

Ok, there are are a host of other reasons why the economic could tailspin in the future but he has a point. However, there is something inherently problematic here. Aren’t these titans of business and Wall Street the same folks who led us into this recession in the first place?

You might counter me by saying that Joe the Plummer is going to do the same thing but let’s keep it real, the average investor is not savvy enough to make this move and their assets are not large enough to really move the needle here.

This is about the fat cats.

As I followed the news in 2008 and 2009 I couldn’t help but to see the tragic irony in all of this. The same people who got us into this mess were the folks we relied on to get us out of it.

For my not so economically literate friends out there let me make a comparison that illustrates the point.

So we’ve got this oil spill going in the gulf right? It’s not so fresh.

But who are we relying on to fix the problem? THE SAME PEOPLE WHO CAUSED IT!

This is what makes the problem so frustrating. We are angry for the screw up, we are infuriated by images of oil soaked wildlife, and to add insult to injury, it is all the more infuriating that the firm that caused the problem is best suited to solve the problem.

Long after the oil leak is plugged and the news cameras stop recording the wildlife and the communities in the gulf will remain mired in the muck caused by this catastrophe.

In both the oil spill and the economic meltdown the leaders who caused the problem knew that they were engaged in reckless behavior. And in the end, regular folks will have to fit the bill.

We need to really think about the folks that we put in places of leadership. Are they good shepherds who will work tirelessly to make sure that their organizations benefit society as well as their bottom line? Or are they bad shepherds, who are all about the cash until the wolves, of their own creation, send them running for the hills with their profits in tow.

The biggest problem that we as a people face today isn’t the economy or our rapidly deteriorating environment. Our biggest problem is our crisis of leadership.

QUESTION OF THE DAY!: What are the characteristics of a good leader? What are some examples of good leaders and why? They can be from history or your personal life. Let's figure this out y'all!