An invitation to go on a strange trip
Is like a Dance Lesson from God.
- Kurt Vonnegut
Recently, one of my daughters was traveling back to Texas to leave her children before she deploys to Afghanistan for her second tour of duty. As the careful observer might deduce from the photograph, the kids have racially mixed parents. Of course, I think they are much more beautiful in person than any photograph could possibly capture, but hey, I am the very proud granddad! You might think that with a racially mixed President, that we might have seen an end to the racism associated with children of mixed blood, that this bigoted boogeyman might have been spanked and put to bed. Not so, in Far East Texas. It appears as though at least one of them has not gotten the word yet and where's there's one, God knows, there might be TWO. But as the story was related to me there was only one. This one particular bigot refused to allow my daughter to buy gas, after she saw that my daughter's children were mixed. It upset my daughter considerably, she tells me it was nothing new, it just surprised her. It was one of those totally unexpected moments. Thank God, she does not have her dad's playground sense of justice, she just put the kids back in the car and drove to New Boston and filled her tank. I would have waited outside the gas station in Texarkana and when the offending attendant walked out, I would have turned up some music real loud, maybe Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy', because it would go with the Bruce Willis words from Die Hard I would scream at her, "Yippee Ki Yo Motherfucker", right before I brought the two-by-four down between her running lights.
Of course, that's just a granddad's instinctive response, my daughter's course of action seems to have been the better choice. When we were discussing it she said, "Dad, calm down. What goes around comes around." I don't know if I believe in Karma all that much, I just think she made a better decision than I would have at that moment. I'm not sure it's okay to ignore bigotry any time, there comes a time when we do not want bigotry 'coming around'. I keep asking myself, "How long, Martin?" How long do we have to put up with this kind of ignorance? Can change come through education, over time or do you have to be hit between the eyes with a two-by-four? In California recently, the good folks there voted against a Proposition that would have allowed Gay couples to marry. The amount of energy spent on trying to limit the rights of different people, could have been better spent on acts of love and kindness expressed by so many of those 'religious folk' that supported banning gay marriage. Why do some folks think that some people are inferior to them? Where do they get these crazy notions? What is it that prevents folks from recognizing that we are all on the same trip together? Does that sound like Karma? Sorry.
Hell, I'm no great fan of any particular religion, but I have noticed that most of them espouse some pretty basic beliefs, i.e., not stealing, not killing, not lying, and respecting your fellow human beings. Even though most college freshmen can point out the innumerable times that the great religions have lied, cheated, killed, stolen, and reeked havoc on their fellow human beings in the name of God, but they can not give you a very definitive answer about why so many are drawn to organized religion. My guess is that they need to be told what to do. They can't read a Bible or Koran or Torah for themselves, so it's easier to be told how to live your life. People who belong to a particular religious sect act and think that they are a little bit better than those who don't. So there is a religious elitism involved. Don't believe me, just look around. There are 'Christian' bookstores and 'Christian' radio and TV stations, and 'Christian' plumbers! A Friend of mine said he saw a pickup truck in Deep East Texas with a magnetized sign on the side that read, "His Hands - Plumbing and Septic Tank Services". It is as though the name itself carries some type of magic, that it makes you better than somebody else. From this elitism there evolves a type of spiritually rationalized entitlement. If you don't do it this way you are going to hell Syndrome (or worse yet miss out on the virgins!). It is a form of religious terrorism that is abhorrent to most rational thinking religious folks.
So what does all this have to do with the rude ass gas station a-teen-dant? I'm getting there, just give me a minute. I tried to put myself in Jesus' (Mohammed, Buddha, Moses, etc. take your pick) sandals for a minute and ask myself what would he do to change the situation. ASIDE: My wife just walked through the room and wanted to know why I was wearing sandals because it 33 degrees outside. Then she wanted to know where I got them and how much did I pay etc. for about thirty minutes. Then I had this AHA moment. Jesus would have looked at the Gas Station Attendant and said, "Where'd you get dem shoes?' They would have talked about shoes for awhile and sure enough Jesus would have got his gas and left the attendant feeling loved and special. Damn, I wish I could be more like that, NAH! I guess I'm just too damn cynical, but maybe my daughters and granddaughters will have a better luck being the kind of people we all strive to be, walking humbly, seeking justice, and sharing kindness. Like my youngest daughter the Voice Major likes to say, "It ain't over until the petite lady sings!"
Until next time, I remain,
Just another Zorastrian Cowboy
seeking to become a costumer for Anna Netrebko
(I still am having a problem picturing Jesus' with His Hands in the septic tank, but hell, he would probably be the first one in!)
