Road Rage
I look in the rear view mirror and see him boot open the door of his ute and started running angrily towards my car. Everything went into Slo Mo. I love Newcastle, a mighty town that has been central to my life for twenty years now. But theres one big difference between driving in Newcastle vs Sydney. If you need to merge lanes in Sydney, even abruptly, 99.9% of Sydneysiders will let you in. Something about knowing it will be themselves very soon down the road that will need the mercy. Newcastle is the opposite. If you need to merge in Newcastle for some reason the instinct is to accelerate and shut down the gap! Happens constantly.
So this guy, accelerated with all his might but he was way too late. I was in his lane. Very comfortably ahead of him. He had embarrassed himself and now I was about to get my head kicked in at the next lights. Made total sense. I mean, it is his road after all. In the split second between seeing him start running and deciding how to respond, with everything in Slow motion, I thought I’d say this to him,
“ Stall the ball there for a second. I can see you’re all worked up there for yourself but if I could just say one thing before we do the old Macho Tango. Look, you got born. Here you are. You're tiny. Between birth and adulthood, whatever happens, if you get food enough you become a creation made from the ups and downs, the food and drink, the good the bad, the highs and lows, that is your training. Now you are you. This is your gift to the world. It’s possible you’re constantly in 'payback mode', or 'trying to be good enough mode', or 'to hell with everyone else I'm getting mine mode'? Or are you a centred ball of energy trying to affect improvement, or just some hungry broken ghost roaming around taking?
I know that I’m now your worst enemy in the history of your short life but it's all up to you now.
The healing you need is right there in the pain. Take in breath and centre the machine. Until you're here and balanced. There are so many ways to peace. There will be storms and darkness but if you're clear then nothing will stop you from making a difference.
Maybe you get four sets of 20 years. 20,40,60,80. If you died at 80 nobody would say you had a short life. Which 20 are you in?
Then there's School? College? Marriage? If you get a mortgage you'll have to use a lot of energy to service that, if you have kids then that takes another ball of life to service. That's no big deal really though, sure even cockroaches earn a living a feed their kids. Not that I’m saying your mother is a Cockroach or anything. No, no, no.
T.V? Screen-time? Sleeping? Washing? Commuting?
Not much time left. And it will end. And nothing leaves the planet. We've thrown a few bits of metal up into space but everybody that ever lived and every molecule of their bodies just stayed here. Being recycled. We come from soil and we return again.
Evolution is slow but changes are possible and whether you're a greenie or an oil head or a leftie or a rightie or a sinner or a saint, we are all in this together. There are no enemies. Just brothers and sisters on this very short journey. So break the patterns that your past is insisting you repeat. We need you awake functioning and joyful.
Joy is possible even at a funeral. My people hold a wake. The deceased is laid out in the living room of the home and the neighbours, friends , lovers and haters all come round for beer, whisky, tea and sandwiches. At that stage it'll be too late. So Carpe Diem as the Mexicans say. Duisígí! Wake up! This is it. Your short life. Leave the best of yourself behind. If everyone lifted their game by 10% we could solve all world problems. Easy.”
Sadly, though, half way between his ute and my car the lights turned green and he had to scarper back. I drove off before he got to me and he turned right and I turned left. We could’ve been the best of buds. If you’re reading this tough man let me just say I wish for you nothing but joy and hope that all your dreams come true. Maybe Santa will bring you you’re very own road!