Starting to Say Thank You II

There is an old saying - “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Many people, especially those on a spiritual journey, think this means they are going to meet a specific person who will be their guru, their mentor. It just doesn’t work that way! We all meet the teachers we most need each and every day of our lives. If we are conscious enough of ourselves and what is happening around us we realize it. Even if we are not, though, we are shaped by who and what we meet, just as we shape them.

Here are some more of the teachers who have shaped me:

• Tampa’s street people. After I got out of the Air Force I lived in Tampa for a few years. I had a job as the maintenance man in the downtown McDonald’s. I did general cleaning, stocking, filtered the fryer oil, and cleaned the grills. Around three or four in the morning I would often hear a noise from the dumpster. I would check, and find someone in the dumpster digging out the bags with the food that had been thrown away that day after it got too old to sell. A couple came around frequently enough that I started saving food to give to them instead of watching them go through the dumpster. Sometimes I would be walking along the river the next day and meet the person trying to sell the food they had taken out of the dumpster. I spent a lot of time walking around town and would talk to a lot of these same people. These people taught me many things. There really are people hungry enough to eat out of the trash. You do what you need to do to survive, whether you like it or not. I don’t ever want to be on the streets. Many of the street people do have mental health problems (At least half the one’s I talked to were obviously schizophrenic). I have compassion for people who are trying to help themselves, but not for those who aren’t and are capable of doing so. Guilt is never a good motivator for compassion.
• My pets. While I was growing up, I had a lot of pets. Dogs, a cat, turtles, pigeons, a possum (saved when it’s mother died, guinea pigs, ducks, and rabbits (sounds more like a farm, doesn’t it). These taught me loyalty, caring for those who are in circumstances where they can’t care for themselves, self-respect gained from performing assigned and needful duties, and some aspects of unconditional love. The possum taught me some creatures just aren’t capable of returning love,. Everything you do can’t be done with the expectation that it will be reciprocated. Much as social psychologists may disagree, all love and caring are not economic transactions. In fact, if a non-business relationship is an economic transaction, the relationship and the participants are demeaned.
• My children. I have believed for a long time that the world around us is an expression of ourselves. Raising my children drove that point home to me. They have been living mirrors.
• My wife. Trite though it may sound, my wife has taught me, and is teaching me, what love and caring for another person is all about.

So who are some of the teachers that you are grateful have appeared in your life?

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