What We Put Ourselves Through When We Don't Realize What We Have

What We Put Ourselves Through When We Don't Realize What We Have
by Shawn Tedrow

One day I was seated on a United Airlines flight waiting and watching passengers getting to their assigned seats before departure. I had an aisle seat and so far no one was sitting next to me. I was hoping it would remain that way because I felt a little nonsocial that day and wanted to be just left alone. It looked like the last passenger sat down and my wish came true. Ah yes, I felt like singing the old hymn, Oh how I love Tao.

After a delay, all of a sudden two crazy looking characters abruptly showed up and were abrasively going down the aisle headed for their seats. At first glance, they looked like they were drunk. Both of their faces were flushing red and they appeared to have one mother of a blistering attitude as they were acting justifiably pissed-off at the world around them. I definitely did not want one of these nasty animals sitting next to me.

They both came closer and closer and then one of them stopped, looked at his ticket, looked at the seat next to me, I got up, and then he sat down. Right when he sat down, I could have swore that I heard the sound of a fart.

Damn it! Sometimes I get a dysfunctional worthless God-complex and start wondering if Big Papa upstairs is deliberately screwing with me for some reason. This was one of those times. Woe is me. I wasn't in the mood for shit happening (Isn't that usually the time when shit happens?) I just wasn't really in a Taoist peace-loving, unification all-is-One, frame of mind. I mean, sometimes this Tao stuff just seems ridiculously absurd. Sitting next to this nut was one thing; I surely didn't want to realize Oneness with him! No thank you!

Yep, it was a stinking fart. I couldn’t get up and out of this insane and fumigating situation to find another seat because the plane began moving and it didn’t look like there were any seats vacant anyway. I was stuck in this screwed-up nauseating soap opera from Hell. I just had to suck it up, so to speak.

There he was, sitting next to me huffing and gasping for air, grumbling and murmuring. Oh how I wish they still allowed smoking on airlines and he magically transformed into an ash tray. Then, after a pause and a couple of very deep breaths, he began to explain to me what just happened to him and his friend.

He told me that when the airline announced it was time to board the plane he started walking in line. He then reached for his cell phone to make a last minute call but couldn’t find it. After searching everywhere he thought he must have left it somewhere, so he and his friend made a running dash backtracking everything they did at the airport.

They first ran to the restaurant they ate at without any luck. They then ran to the restroom without finding it. Then they realized they might miss the plane so they put themselves in reverse and ran as fast as they could back to the gate. When they arrived at the gate, the door was closing and they were told they were too late. They went into a rage and, surprisingly, the airline employees had a change of mind and let them in. After telling me all this, he sat there shaking his head in utter disbelief about what just took place.

He then decided to read a book to try and mellow out, so he casually reached into his inside coat pocket looking for his reading glasses and pulled out his cell phone that he thought he lost. He looked like he was going to faint. Hmmm….I wonder if that is what enlightenment is like?

I think it was Kabir that said, ‘The fish in the water is thirsty”.

After rereading this, I guess I too was a little fishy in the water behaving like I was thirsty.

You can check out Shawn's other musings here.