For years it has seemed like I've had this strange Karmic-debt-thing going on in which every time I critique anyone in any way I then have to experience whatever it is that I critiqued about them. I think it is the Universe's way of teaching me empathy. In 2007 the volume seemed to be turned up. Lots of lessons in succession. What used to take months or years to occur now happening in mere days.
Last week on the plane from Seattle to Denver there was a woman seated in front of me who took what seemed like forever to get in her seat despite the fact that she was travelling with a small child and had boarded quite a while earlier. She was blocking my seat and had taken up what seemed to me like more than her share of the overhead space and had her coat spread out up there like a sheet, so that I had to ask her to move it over to make room for my carry-on. I noticed as we got off the plane and she pushed the baby stroller that she was walking with a bit of a limp. By the time I got home my right foot was so sore from wearing flat shoes while Chistmas shopping that the only way to keep from dragging it in a Quasimodo-like gait was to walk very slowly. My limp lasted 3 days.
A few months ago at Baker's I was paying with a debit card and I tried to get cash back. The machine said "can not complete transaction". I informed the cashier and he called the manager over. "YOU CAN'T GET A HUNDRED DOLLARS" the manager said so loudly that quite possibly every person at every register could hear. "um, hey lady how about leaving me a little dignity?" I thought. Now everyone is going to think I don't have a hundred dollars in my account when actually the register just won't handle a withdrawal that large. Then the screen went blank. "Swipe it again, I cleared the transaction" she said. As it turned out I didn't need either as much cash or as much dignity as I thought I'd needed.
I asked for these lessons. I think it all started back when I was 11 years old in Sunday School and our teacher, my uncle Luther, asked us "if you could ask God for any gift you wanted what would you ask for?" I remember my friend said money. I said wisdom and knowledge because if you had those you could get anything else you needed, including money, right? I remember wanting to be as wise as Solomon and thinking that if, at age 11, I had enough sense to ask for the gift that keeps on giving then I must be pretty wise already. Well it turns out that like truth, wisdom is a two-edged sword. Most of the ways to get it are painful and, once you get it (or some), you keep needing more painful and oftentimes humbling refresher courses on how to use it.
Years of lessons finally culminated this Chistmas in a final exam of sorts. The lesson? Have faith in People as well as in God. Quiet faith. Patient faith. Positive, good-natured faith. Time for the application. I can't wait for 2008!!!!!!!
