The Cell Phone & Bum Enlightenment

by Alan Steinborn

I love Cell Phones.

They provide some strange combinations.

Everybody knows about the maddening cell phone talking driver driving in
front of you. Or the person talking on their phone as if they and their friend are
the only people in the whole world while they stand in the check out line in the midst
of non-de script objects which could otherwise be described as people.

These are the common cell phone stories.

But how about this one: Have you ever had a massive break through moment on a cell phone?

I'm talking about a major epiphany--on a cell phone!

It happened to me just yesterday, here in Portland.

It happened at the end of a full day of walking.

I was sitting on a park bench at NW 24th street to rest my walked out legs.

I was relaxing myself into a reptile, vacantly sinking into the swamps when my phone
rang...or rather, it vibrated since I had it on vibrate!

I looked at the caller ID.

It was my man, Ryan.

I had been wanting to talk with Ryan, so I happily answered.

I needed to unburden myself of something that was troubling me and Ryan was just the man.

My brilliant day of hiking and music making had been like a perfect shirt, but with one stain on it, and Ryan was the ideal person--the ideal friend more specifically--to commiserate with about this particular issue.

Our conversation was sweet, as usual, until we got to 'the issue' and then I got heavy and sad.

I told Ryan about a romantic interest that seemed to be going no where.

My love interest had inexplicably dropped out of communication with me for no apparent reason.

Ryan paused after he heard my entire sad tale.

He reflected out loud; "I guess its hard not to take that personally."

In that moment I felt pretty heavy, lousy and largely self-pitying.

The world didn't exist in that moment. All the beauty of the day had dried up
and reduced itself to one fact and it wasn't a pretty one!

Still, I was not angry--just obsessed and without control.

So I replied: "Naw, I am not taking it personally. I just miss her and would like some..."

Just then, before I could get the word "completion" out of my mouth,
something completely out of the blue happened.

It was my cell phone epiphany moment.

This amazing homeless man walked up. He was like out of star wars or tibetan
mythology; A cross between Jaba the Hut and a wrathful deity! His massive
frame was hunched over an old shopping cart, his hair long dirt scraggles,
self-rolled cigarette dangling freehand style into his beard, making it seem
like part of his body except for the occasional plume of smoke and his eyes
were more of the wrathful variety than the Jaba variety.

He had me spell bound from the moment I saw him.

He put himself directly facing me, about 5 feet away, and pierced deep into my eyes.

I was looking into a face that was like a raggedy version of this:

He immediately started demanding that I recite to my friend on
the phone what he was mumbling.

He rasped: "Tell him I am a homeless, no good bum, I stink and I haven't showered in days
and I haven't had a drink in over an hour..."

His eyes captured me instantly.

Without hesitation I became his secretary and dutifully repeated his dictation to Ryan.

So Ryan heard something like this: "No I am not taking it personally. I just miss her
and...and...and...one second...and...I am a homeless, no good bum, I stink and I haven't
showered in days and I haven't had a drink in over an hour..."

All the sudden, my silly self-pitying story, most concrete and real a moment before evaporated.

My eyes and his eyes communed beyond our stories and for us both there was only brightness.

In that moment I became enlightened.

I finished the dictation with a loud laugh and declared to both Ryan and my friendly wrathful
God: "And ACTUALLY there is NO PROBLEM AT ALL!!!"

Ryan laughed uproariously and the homeless man, harumphed in satisfaction,
turned his shopping cart wayward and went on his way!

Please email me at alan@speaknow.biz and tell me about a time when your seemingly essential story evaporated in the face of a here and now which captivated you and catapulted you into realm of joy and surrender.

Yours in Presence,

Alan Steinborn

Alan Steinborn, All Rights Reserved, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007