Fun fact, misery does not dig company and despite what I’ve been dealing with over the past few months, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Just because my own life might be turning to shit, it doesn’t mean that I can’t show compassion for others. The truth is that it doesn’t take much to make an impact.
Please note, I’m citing this as an example, this is not to toot my own horn.
I’m walking the trail to get coffee, the same place that I normally see deer and the occasional bear. One of the “Christian Kids” was headed in my direction and the kid just looked off. I was in my own head thinking about Elle and tried to brush it off but I couldn’t. I’m not saying that God spoke to me and told me to talk to him but something was nudging me enough that I couldn’t shake it.
“The fuck is wrong with you kid? You look like shit” I asked and yet we wonder why I don’t have many friends
“Huh” he responded, scared that I was talking to him and startled since he had been deep in thoughts of his own bullshit.
“I asked you a question, something’s wrong, what the fuck?” I blurted out since, fuck tact, I wanted to do this and get coffee.
Let me back up for a second.
This kid is maybe 19, goes to Church which is fine but he’s also most likely a virgin, has never smoked grass or done mushrooms and I highly doubt he’s ever been punched in the face by a man. I don’t have a problem with any of this since it’s his life, his choice yet I do respect the fact that we have some pretty serious differences. That being said, when a dude has shit going on, it’s your job to help out when you can.
“Well, uhhh uhh, I didn’t uhhh, get this job that I was really hoping for and I’m just really bummed.” he said honestly.
“You go to Church? You believe in all of that bullshit don’t you? That God has a plan that’s bigger than yours right? That he’s always got your back?” I shot back, half attacking him to get his attention.
“Yeah, yeah I do” he said with a slight tremble of doubt yet a light of real faith.
“Then what the fuck are you worried about kid? He’s got you, shit’s going to work according to his plan. Live your faith brother” I said, going in for the kill. There was no arguing, no debate. I wasn’t blasting his faith, I was reinforcing it.
“Right!?!?” I semi yelled to make sure the kid got the point. I could see the light come back to his eyes and I’m not going to lie, it felt fucking good.
“Yeah, yeah man you’re right. Thank you!”. His voice was louder, not shaking and scared like it had been only a minute prior.
This wasn’t his pastor or bible study leader saying it, it was that inked up Chef who didn’t say much. Let’s face it, the kid is scared of me and I don’t blame him, for the most part, he should be but really, that doesn’t matter.
It’s easy to see the differences in people
They’re this or they believe that or they like to do things in a way that I don’t like. For the most part these things are arbitrary and trivial at best. Suffering is suffering, plain and simple and if I can take two minutes out of my day to show a bit of compassion for someone, why the fuck wouldn’t I?
I’ll go into it in more depth at another time but the Old Man used to hammer into my head that there are four common experiences in life that we all share.
Love is love. We all love something in this world
Loss is loss. It’s part of life and it’s never fun
Fear is Fear. Bats, spiders, the fear of losing the person you love, we all experience it
Hope is hope and this, along with love keeps us going.
The kid had lost what was for him, a big opportunity and all I did was get out of my own selfdoubt and fear for two minutes to help him find hope again. It didn’t take much effort at all yet it was what he needed. Oddly enough, it wasn’t bullshit, I meant every word of it.
The moral is that, if you can help, help. Most of the time people just want to be heard anyways so it’s not like it costs you anything other than a few minutes. And before you think I’m getting soft, please note that I go out of my way to play the band Steel Panther when he’s around since you really can’t get the visuals from the lyrics out of your head and it’s my way of counterbalancing the Church brainwashing. I like to think I do my part.