A couple of months ago, on one of those ‘thank God, it’s finally raining’ days….(mind you, my body clock works uniquely) heading home and possibly signing off for the day, the usually uneventful drive was jarred by that bump that tells you things aren’t going to go as planned. Despite the rain, I got down to assess the damage and also ascertain what was going on with the driver behind me. Alas, it was a young man still in his teens and barely able to string a complete sentence in English. He asked for my phone to call his mom after I was able to decipher that not only was he not covered by the insurance company but he didn’t have a driver’s license and this was his second accident that week.

Time waits for nobody and going by the remorse he showed and the obvious problems he would have if the cops were called, I did the Christian thing of calming him down and telling him he needed to pay more attention especially with the roads being wet and all that. I needed to be somewhere so I let him go after obtaining the necessary documentation. You might have heard that when it rains, it just doesn’t rain, it pours and so my first lesson in road accidents began. Despite the language barrier, his parents opted to cover the repairs but insisted on coming to meet with me (which in my opinion was pointless). Oh how predictable the wiles of man can be, eventually I did have to call the cops upon their insistence because apparently there was no damage from their own perspective (especially since I was just coming from church).

Two months to the fender-bender evening, I receive a subpoena to appear in court as a witness for the state – three counts of criminal misconduct!!! After sifting through the legalese, it suddenly occurred to me that we are inadvertently responsible for how our lives play out. All it takes most times is listening to the crowds and ignoring that gentle voice in you telling you to get off the bandwagon and chart your own path. As the days fly past, I ask myself; “When is it appropriate to collide but not collude? Do the collisions we encounter be an avenue to work together positively?” And in my own little world, I think the answer lies in the fundamentals by which we live. What is the appropriate response to the blatant silence from those whom you felt were rooting for you at some time?

It is actually a parody when we think that in the face of the coming storm, we have all the windows and hatches battened down, only to realize in the midst of the storm that the likelihood of you surviving is simply a function of where you have placed your faith. It is almost characteristic of man to dance only when the piper’s tunes are an elaborate tale of ‘success’ stories. The question of what happens when events overshadow your mediocre triumphs is a daily event, seen every time- failure is an orphan! Dealing with the reality of today is a manifestation of what anchors you….if you still have an anchor anyway. Being bogged down in the mire of loneliness and exhaustion is not being anchored and the sooner you get yourself out to solid ground, the better it will be for you.

What do you do when your collisions threaten to rip you apart? When the insurance companies hide behind their fine print and tell you, ‘we cannot cover this!’. That dear friend is the tale of many even as we trudge on in this journey of life. To be or not to be isn’t the issue, rather it is defying the odds and staying true to yourself. When you look back at your corner and realize that not even the flattering and insincere words of those who have nowhere else to go can help you. When you cry out in frustration because people don’t get you. Truth be told, they never will and the longer you remain in the ruts of vessels long gone, the greater the harm you do yourself.

What is the difference between apathy and empathy? It’s not found in the sugar coated words of naysayers, neither will it be seen in the actions of the many that are seen around you but aren’t there for you. You have to make the call, shake yourself up and just keep moving on. There’s nothing as defiant as a resolute spirit in a broken body however as long as we nurture our spirits, the pain from our broken bodies can be tolerated. For what we seek is not in the annals of history but in the present and the future that we are unwittingly writing out today. There will always be room for you to pause, re-evaluate our circumstances and if need be, change our direction. I may be treated in the worst possible way but that’s not what keeps me going, what keeps me going is the fact that somebody somewhere is in dire need of a helping hand and if that’s all that can be said of m, then I dare to say I just might have fulfilled my purpose!

עד ניפגש שוב, תן אהבה שלו למלא ולשמו אותך!

Adios!