DAY 44 – RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

April 22, 2013

44 of 65

Right Place, Right Time

We are all in this together.  Sometimes we happen to be at the right place at the right time to help someone else in a small way, or in a large way – whatever is needed.  It could be life changing, but it doesn’t need to be.  It could be life changing in some way we will never know.

When I was about 8 years old, my brothers and I were at the local swimming pool.  Some friends from school were there, and I was hanging out with them, not paying attention to my brother Jim who was only 4 years old.  My friends and I walked toward deeper water; not over our heads, but deeper.  Jim, who was much shorter, followed us by pulling himself along the side of the pool.  I was not even aware he was there, but I heard a splashing sound behind me.  A small child was under water and thrashing about.  I reached down and lifted him to the surface, surprised to see it was my brother.  I surmised that he had tried to follow us to the center of the pool only to find the water was way over his head.  He told me I had saved his life.  Though I was probably responsible for his being in the wrong place, it was the right place and right time for me.

This next example will probably seem less dramatic. 
While attending college, I went with some friends to a John Sebastian concert at Tulagi’s on the Hill in Boulder.  A member of the group sitting next to us was trying to describe Robert W. Service’s poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” to his friends.  He was clearly enthused, but the others seemed uninterested.  “Oh, I wish I could remember how it goes,” I heard him say.  I waved my hand, causing him to look at me; then I began:

“There are strange things done in the Midnight Sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 I continued – that happened to be a poem I had memorized for some reason – while everyone in the vicinity looked on with some kind (good or bad) of amazement.

Were any lives changed that night?  I don’t know.  At that time and place, it seemed I was doing the right thing.

Many years later, when our children, Michael and Suzanne, were perhaps 7 and 5, I took them to the Denver Art Museum one Saturday afternoon.  We spent some time looking at the Native American exhibit which they enjoyed; then we began looking at art from the other Indians – the ones from India.  The kids liked Ganesha with his elephant head and Shiva with his four arms standing on the back of a dwarf.  There were representations of various bodhisattvas and gods and goddesses.  As we passed by, I overheard a lady in her late 20s ask a museum guard, “Could you tell me what ‘bodhisattva’ means?”

The guard replied, “I’m sorry, I don’t know.  I don’t usually work on this floor.”

I approached and said, ‘Excuse me.  I overheard your question, and maybe I can answer it.”  I  summarized my understanding of the Buddhist concept of reincarnation, with the ultimate purpose of reaching Nirvana and escaping the endless cycle of birth and death and re-birth.  However, I explained, some beings are so filled with compassion for others that when they have attained the level of Nirvana, they nevertheless choose to be re-born to help others move to higher spiritual levels.  Those beings are called “bodhisattvas.”

Another museum visitor, a young man, had stopped to listen to my description.  When I paused, he said, “Yeah, it’s like that ‘Bodhisattva’ song by . . . by . . .uh, who is that?”

“Steely Dan,” I said.

“Right, Steely Dan.”

Everyone thanked me, and went their separate ways.  My children thought – at least for a few minutes – that I was pretty smart.  I thought:  I guess I was in the right place at the right time today.  Maybe I helped move one of those others a step closer to Nirvana.  I don’t know.

It works both ways, of course.  One summer Cathy and Michael and I were vacationing in Branson, Missouri for a week.  We had never been to the Ozarks.  One morning I was in the lobby of the resort checking my email when a passing stranger asked how we were enjoying our stay.  “We’re having a good time,” I said.  He said that he and his wife came to Branson almost every year to see the shows.  Unfortunately, they were going to have to leave a day early, even though they had tickets for Marty Haggard’s show that night.  He said we could have them if we would use them.  I thanked him, took the tickets and we attended the show.

Marty is the son of country music legend Merle Haggard.  The show was a tribute to his father, and quite entertaining.  We would have missed it had I not been in the right place at the right time.

Of course there are more dramatic examples in everyone’s life.  These have been mentioned because they are so ordinary, and similar to what happens for each of us every day.  Look around you.  You could be in the right place at the right time right now.

1 thought on “DAY 44 – RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

  1. Pingback: CHAPTER 15 – BODHISATTVA | ralstoncreekreview.com

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