Crossroads

Sitting at the intersection of Lafayette and Washington in Norwich, CT, this morning as my light went green. Because my mother raised crazy, but not stupid, children I've practiced for years the art of 'three Mississippis' after the light changes before rolling ahead. This morning, again, counting to three (Mississippi) stood me in good stead.

An Obliviot in a mid nineties model of a four door Toyota, rolled through the red light, at two Mississippi, all the while chatting away on the cell phone clamped to his right ear. At that moment, he was only physically in the car, but was really wherever he and the person on the cell phone were having their moment. Piloting a mobile device weighing a ton or more (I have NO idea how much cars weigh but a ton reads pretty well. Does this SUV make my butt big?) with an internal combustion engine, and casual disregard for traffic signals and rules of the road (and common sense) to the contrary, this fellow is another Obliviot with whom we all share the planet.

When we reorder the universe and place ourselves at the center, when instead of realizing life goes on within you AND without you we see ourselves as the stars of a worldwide movie where everyone else is a walk-on, we've become an Obliviot. It's not a constant process or a one-time deal, but the more often we live without thinking, the harder thinking in our lives becomes and the easier the path to oblivion seems. As kids, our moms taught us to take turns but as grown-ups we practice that as 'me first'. Close, but different enough that the rest of us have to cope.

In a perfect world this morning, this driver could and should have had a misfortune befall him but the Larger World compensated for him and the worst thing that happened was I mentioned him this morning in this rant. Probability suggests he'll never read these words and even if he did he'll never recognize himself, and in my own way, I've become an Obliviot.

I'm 56 today and continue to grow old without growing wiser in any way. I keep bumping into the people I used to be without fully appreciating at many levels I am still those guys and that a part of me will always be those people. If we are truly the sum of our life experiences and of everyone we've ever met, I should have paid more attention to arithmetic in St. Peter Grammar School because I'm terrible at addition.
-bill kenny