Meditation for May 5th, 2016
How We Get There
A wise man once said, “It’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey.” This was said when the world wasn’t very comfortable and most people had to sleep outside and usually wherever your destination was you’d die before you got there anyway. Now days it’s how you get there.
Living in a city means you have plenty of options to choose from when deciding how to get somewhere. Walk, bus, bike, longboard, car or just not go at all are all the options one has.
How you get places tells what kind of a person you are.
People who drive are eager to get wherever they are going. Drivers are the most impatient, selfish and destructive of the transporters.
Drivers just won’t shut up about traffic. A driver looks at themselves as the only real driver and car that exists and all other cars as these obstacles getting in the way of their destination. The car separates people from the human race and road rage is actually a cry to the heavens because a person is just realizing they aren’t alone and that this person that cut him or her off is very real and may have done it maliciously and therefore man is cruel and love isn’t real and now a person is feeling naked and alone while screaming at the windshield.
Drivers are always late because they have this idea that because they are going to drive they always have ten more minutes. People think that everything is seconds away because they have this metal box that uses exploding gas to launch it across great strips of tarred rock.
Drivers use terms like offensive and defensive driving like they are playing football or at war. Drivers have to be aware of their blind spot because if they don’t they could get attacked. People are afraid of honking in case it’s a road eager with a gun. Cars crashing into each other at speeds beyond human capabilities is a scary prospect.
Drivers love living far far away from where they work or where their kids go to private school, so they end up destroying the environment by living in new suburban neighborhoods that was a forest last year and the oil they waste are the cause of about a dozen wars over the last 100 years. Even if you have Bernie sticker on your Subaru or a free Tibet sticker on your Prius, you have blood on your hands.
Bus people are adventurous but need leisure. This is for the person that doesn’t care if they get where they are going on time or they have the ability to leave early enough. A bus person is always early. Even though they had to leave an hour and a half before they get to work, transferring three times and one of the busses didn’t even show up so had to wait for the next bus and still end up being twenty minutes early. They would be an hour late if they had taken the next bus.
One can read, listen to music, have a picnic, play World of Warcraft, play live Tinder with every person who gets on the bus, learn about abnormal psyche and actually enjoy a diverse community. While drivers have to be somewhat focused on the road in front of them, a bus rider gets to relax and watch the road go by them in deep reflection.
The bus rider is in constant meditation.
The cyclist is the entitled spoiled brat. They want a pat on the back for being so physical and eco-conscience. They have no respect for drivers, pedestrians or even other cyclists if they aren’t respecting cyclist strict ethic and cultural rules enough.
Cyclists blame everyone else for their problems. A cyclist has little respect for traffic laws – unless a car disrespects them. A cyclist will claim to be a pedestrian or a car if it suits their needs in a traffic dispute. A cyclist is never at fault because they are self-important.
If you ride your bike on the sidewalk, you should be shot.
The pedestrian is like the Fool of the tarot cards by just wandering and looking at stuff.
Prayer
Hermes,
I just need to get there.
I can’t stand the idea of being still.
I need to be going somewhere or I’ll die like a shark.
I need to be doing errands and writing lists and achieving goals and having new goals and stopping here to check it out and stopping there to see if it changed and I need to be moving and I need to stop and do some weights at the gym and maybe I’ll stop at Whole Foods and start a new diet and then I’ll stop at the ice cream shop and I just want to never have to go home and not having anything to do or I’ll just realize that my life is really pointless and meaningless and I’m just trying to fake a busy life to keep myself from wanting to die alone.
Amen.
Craft
Find a bus that goes waaaaaay out of town. Take it to the end. Don’t get off at the last stop unless the diver insists. Wait for the return. Think.
If you’re a driver, use the bus for one week.
Walk more.
If you ride a bike, follow all the traffic laws – even if there is no one there to see it.
Goal
Cars are killing people
The bike is killing you
Walking is your salvation