Today I donated $20 to a complete stranger.
This guy, 44 years old, and his wife approached me in the Finleys parking lot in Bay Shore. They explained that their car broke down, they tried to take the train to Shirley, but the conductors wouldn't let them on because they didn't have enough money. The man explained that he had almost had the cops called on him, he seemed frightened looking at the cop car, and even promised me he'd go to the train station by saying I could drive him himself.
This seemed like a compelling story to me for some reason.
When I gave the man the money, he was very thankful and asked how he could pay me back. What I said was something I've never said before--something I've always thought of, but have never actually applied to my own life. I told him to pay it forward; not to pay me back, but to help somebody else out and pay it forward.
Now I do not know if the man and his wife actually went on a train to Shirley, or if they went around Bay Shore some more and got money for drugs or something, but I hope my insistence on paying it forward resonated with these two. I'm hoping this act of generosity, whether deserved or not, inspired these two to do some more, and to generate more generosity in a culture that is certainly lacking people helping people when they need it.
As I'm writing this, I'm feeling better about it. I don't know if I truly believe their story. I don't know what motivated me to help them. I will never know my motivation or the actual truth; I can only hope. If we can't rely on hope, what do we have? I half-jokingly said to a friend of mine tonight that I want to wait until people help me out with $20 - whether it's a dollar here, a drink there, a quarter next - just to see how long it takes to get my money back from others. Just a little experiment, even if it's a tad selfish.
I don't really know what to think about the whole situation, but how else would this world turn if people didn't try to pay it forward?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Occam's Razor
All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best. This maxim is commonly known as Occam's razor. It seems incredibly optimistic and unheard of in our society nowadays that we would go for the simplest solution possible. Lately, people have been positing and pundits pontificating about how one person or another group of people are going to bail this country out of its economic debt. About how we are going to end our reliance on foreign oil. On how we are going to create more jobs inside this country. And who can get us out of this whole mess.
But, is there any way either of our cunning candidates or their surrogates could come up with a simple solution? There has to be an easy way of getting us out of this mess. I believe if we start simple, we can get complex later. If we can put a guided faith in accomplishing something for the common good in one person, a simple solution, then the more complex acts must soon follow.
It is simple to do what is good. It is complex to do what is evil; at least, that's the way it should be. Lately we have had a proclivity as a society to act more evilly than good, and we need to change that pattern. A minor change in how we act could create a sensation akin to a "pay it forward" movement, and in that case, we'd be moving and progressing forward, rather than behind.
But, is there any way either of our cunning candidates or their surrogates could come up with a simple solution? There has to be an easy way of getting us out of this mess. I believe if we start simple, we can get complex later. If we can put a guided faith in accomplishing something for the common good in one person, a simple solution, then the more complex acts must soon follow.
It is simple to do what is good. It is complex to do what is evil; at least, that's the way it should be. Lately we have had a proclivity as a society to act more evilly than good, and we need to change that pattern. A minor change in how we act could create a sensation akin to a "pay it forward" movement, and in that case, we'd be moving and progressing forward, rather than behind.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Starting Fresh
When we sleep, we like to think our mind is subdued, on auto-pilot so we can rest assuredly. I think otherwise. I think my mind is crazily moving at the speed of light up to and while I sleep. I have been lying in bed lately, unable to fall asleep, with thoughts and anxieties buzzing around in my mind. It is not until there is a clear separation of mind and body that I can actually achieve sleep, as if it were an Olympic gold medal that I am trying desperately to win.
Why is the separation of mind and body so hard to achieve? There must be a spiritual way to do this. Meditation? Tai chi? I have to look into something. I think part of the problem is I am growing. My mind and my body are growing beyond the limits that my small bed inside my small room have contained me. Every year, at certain points, I get the urge to move, to disperse myself and check out other places. I think that time has come for me now. I temporarily released my diaspora among this country on my trip this summer, but the feeling of growth beyond boundaries has returned. There are aspects of my life that have to start anew.
I think we all need a fresh start every once in awhile. Without starting new, without building ourselves up from nothing, what do we do? Sit and collect dust. And for those who started from dust, collecting dust is a step back in the progression we are going in. So I think I'm going to keep moving forward and start painting myself up on a fresh canvass...until I take a break and fall asleep.
Why is the separation of mind and body so hard to achieve? There must be a spiritual way to do this. Meditation? Tai chi? I have to look into something. I think part of the problem is I am growing. My mind and my body are growing beyond the limits that my small bed inside my small room have contained me. Every year, at certain points, I get the urge to move, to disperse myself and check out other places. I think that time has come for me now. I temporarily released my diaspora among this country on my trip this summer, but the feeling of growth beyond boundaries has returned. There are aspects of my life that have to start anew.
I think we all need a fresh start every once in awhile. Without starting new, without building ourselves up from nothing, what do we do? Sit and collect dust. And for those who started from dust, collecting dust is a step back in the progression we are going in. So I think I'm going to keep moving forward and start painting myself up on a fresh canvass...until I take a break and fall asleep.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Whirlwind
Lately I've been thinking about directions. When I'm driving West on a road, like Middle Country Road for instance, it's neat to think about the term "west" in a general, worldly sense. For instance, where my car is at that exact moment, if I were able to drive due west, straight on til' morning as they say, I could be in Pennsylvania or Ohio or Colorado, etc. And the same if I were able to drive due east. We are constantly able to move east and west, but rarely up and down. Physically, we really don't go too far up or too far down, at least not as easily. We can go as high as a sky-scraper, or of course an airplane, but it doesn't involve the same amount of effort. We can laboriously climb to the top of a mountain or scuba-dive to the bottom of the ocean, but these activities are not common to everyman's everyday life. And of course at times we fall down, but as I was reminded when watching Batman Begins, "Why do we fall? To pick ourselves up."
Tonight, I watched a pair of "funnel clouds" from my backyard deck. These twister-like masses appeared in the distance, only a few miles, just over the Long Island Sound, extending out from a massive storm cloud that ballooned and marshmallowed all the way up to the sun. It was a magnificent sight to see from the vantage point of my own backyard. But, I thought about the rare tornado action that we see here on the island as a sign that even though we might get caught in a whirlwind sometimes, there is beauty and serenity and solace underneath it all. I was able to see this beautiful sight, which got me thinking; others were able to capture it on video and are now featured in the (local news); yet, if these twin twisters had been 20 miles closer to land, houses (possibly even those of some good friends) could have been seriously damaged.
We tend to encounter whirlwinds like these all the time. The key is looking underneath for that glimpse of light or way of picking ourselves back up when the dust settles and the wind dies down a bit.
Tonight, I watched a pair of "funnel clouds" from my backyard deck. These twister-like masses appeared in the distance, only a few miles, just over the Long Island Sound, extending out from a massive storm cloud that ballooned and marshmallowed all the way up to the sun. It was a magnificent sight to see from the vantage point of my own backyard. But, I thought about the rare tornado action that we see here on the island as a sign that even though we might get caught in a whirlwind sometimes, there is beauty and serenity and solace underneath it all. I was able to see this beautiful sight, which got me thinking; others were able to capture it on video and are now featured in the (local news); yet, if these twin twisters had been 20 miles closer to land, houses (possibly even those of some good friends) could have been seriously damaged.
We tend to encounter whirlwinds like these all the time. The key is looking underneath for that glimpse of light or way of picking ourselves back up when the dust settles and the wind dies down a bit.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Heim
Took the train into the city today to meet up with college friends Meg & Jeremy, and so glad I did because it's just nice to talk to some people and have a great sophisticated conversation with those I haven't seen in awhile. This is what I observed on my trip:
The clouds are so low today as my train endlessly glides into them, which permeate the atmosphere around me and feed into the sun, like giant marshmallows being prod into a great big campfire, with billions of Earth's people all sitting around.
I know the people in this city. These people are me: anxious and aggressive but kind and affable. They will look you in the eye despite the color that surrounds that eye--and it is not a look of disgust or dislike; it's a shared look of strength, acceptance; it is in this New York Look that you can tell in some way we are all alike: even if it is in our innate nature of running to the Long Island Railroad track the second the track number is released on the switchboard in Penn Station, all appendages flying by with little regard for anyone else around, except the lady next to you on the escalator whom you share a smile with over the man with the bicycle who is holding up all the traffic going down to the train that will take you home. Yes this is my city that I do recognize so well.
The ending to the day: Sigur Ros "Heim" (which means "Home" in German).
The clouds are so low today as my train endlessly glides into them, which permeate the atmosphere around me and feed into the sun, like giant marshmallows being prod into a great big campfire, with billions of Earth's people all sitting around.
I know the people in this city. These people are me: anxious and aggressive but kind and affable. They will look you in the eye despite the color that surrounds that eye--and it is not a look of disgust or dislike; it's a shared look of strength, acceptance; it is in this New York Look that you can tell in some way we are all alike: even if it is in our innate nature of running to the Long Island Railroad track the second the track number is released on the switchboard in Penn Station, all appendages flying by with little regard for anyone else around, except the lady next to you on the escalator whom you share a smile with over the man with the bicycle who is holding up all the traffic going down to the train that will take you home. Yes this is my city that I do recognize so well.
The ending to the day: Sigur Ros "Heim" (which means "Home" in German).
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Quite Disgruntled...
"THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US; LATE AND SOON"
THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 10
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
1806.
Wm. Wordsworth
THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 10
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
1806.
Wm. Wordsworth
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