I am nearly 54 and haven't been in a fight since my early 20's. I do however find that I have an opportunity to show the advantage of a calm,clear mind nearly every day.
Take yesterday for example.
I was on the freeway with my wife and mother in law driving back from visiting some relatives in Ohio. I was in the left lane passing a truck. There was a SUV behind the truck.
Just as I was pulling alongside the SUV, he decided to change lanes sharply. I saw him coming and laid on the horn. He kept coming. I move as far to the left as I could without driving into the median.
It wasn't far enough. When he finally saw me, he hit my car and went back to his own lane.
The highway patrolman said the if he had hit me a little further back, my car might have spun and it would have been a very bad thing. If he had hit me much harder at all, I would have ended up in the median and maybe rolled over.
As it was, the damage is superficial. No one was hurt and all's well that ends well.
6 comments:
A brush with death ... and life!
Or, as one fellow used to say, "We're always sliding down the razor blade of life."
So: keep practicing, right? A moment's clarity can prove valuable. Along those lines, this might have some useful hints.
Thanks, and thanks for the link.
It is in those situations that you appreciate the ability to go home safe at the end of the day. I was glad that you and your loved ones were safe, despite the inattentiveness of others.
Thank you. It's easy to have a calm, clear mind and be in harmony with the universe when everything is going your way. It becomes a little more of a challenge when the universe has other plans for you and decides to have a few laughs at your expense.
For my next trick, I'm going to pick up a hot barbeque with my bare forearms to permanently mark them with "Weber" the way Kwai Chang Caine had the Tiger and Dragon on his.
hey rick, yup it's situations like this that cultivating a clear calm mind is all about. And actually, reminds me that in my post on thinking, I would have wanted to compare the concepts of thinking things through with intuitive thinking, and the concepts of wu wei, or no-mind.
When talking about this sort of thing, I like to make the distinction between "responding" and "reacting".
For me, reacting is just a blind action and let the chips fall where they may.
Responding, on the other hand, is "finding the fit".
Post a Comment