The Bus Driver & The Black Bag

The air brakes hiss as the morning traffic slows to pass the orange and gray behemoth MTA bus. The bus driver pulls up to the red curb in front of the post office at precisely eleven o'clock sharp. You can set your watch to it.

As I peer out of the window, I see the tall, lean bus driver reaching for something behind his seat. He jumps off the empty bus, closing the door behind him. His navy blue uniform is neat and pressed and offsets his clean cut.

With his gloved hands, he holds a medium sized black duffle bag. By the way he walks, it is evident that there is something heavy in the bag. He struggles a little, then lifts it with one hand, gripping the bottom of it with the other hand.

You can almost hear his shoulder bone pop as he leans to his right from the weight of the bag and scurries into the post office. I witness this everyday as the keyboard and I convene at my desk while I compress the life out of its keys.

My attention targets him like a predator to prey. I follow him with my eyes. I hear his heart beat. I hear him panting while carrying that bag. I feel his heart rate increasing faster and faster. I feel the weight of the bag on my shoulder. For a split second, I am there with him, then I lose him as he goes into the post office.

I wonder what is in that black bag? Is the bus driver really a mule? Were my eyes attesting a highly organized drug trafficking participant right under my nose? How did the post office come into play? That’s not very creative.

That British woman in Oslo, Norway who concealed 2.2 pounds of cocaine glued to her head under her wig was creative. The man who tried to smuggle heroin in his adult diaper was creative. Although, I think he was just looking for a change.

Before my imagination got any further, the bus driver comes out of the post office holding the empty duffel bag which by now is as light as a feather. He jumps back on to his bus and drives off. The whole process takes less than five minutes from start to finish.

I wonder if he likes his job? I wonder if he looks forward to getting up each day and doing the same thing over and over? I wonder if his shoulder or his back will eventually give way? Our jobs define us in ways that define our lives. We become them. They become us, but it doesn’t mean that we are happy.

Many people are unhappy with their jobs. They hate them. We have all had jobs that we despise. I have had my share of them, but I never lost my passion for writing. After a hard day, I would always return home and peel my day away through writing. So many people lack skills and/or passion to do the jobs in which they are employed.

Work should give us a sense of purpose and resolution. It should carry with it a sense of pride, our signature. While I know it is not possible for everyone to do what they absolutely love and get paid for it, it is still possible to do what we love.

If we can put attention on what we love everyday for an hour or two, we are still fulfilling our Soul. Whatever it is. We can use it as a reward and a road to fulfillment.

Every time I put a period on the last word of whatever I am writing, I feel a sense of satisfaction that is fulfilling. It also fills me with a slew of gratitude. You all make my dreams a reality by reading the words on this page. It’s a wonderful ride. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for being a part of my dream.

Do you love or hate your job? Does money dictate why you do it? How do you feel when you do it? Does it define you? How do you feel?

Mountain Mondays

Mondays are mountain days. Days when we may fell like our head is on the chopping block. Perhaps days when we lose our head? It’s hard facing confinement when we were running free through wonderland not less than 48 hours ago.

Through some strange phenomenon, the work that was completely finished on Friday somehow gained momentum over the weekend and now sits in a massive mountain glaring at us.

If we try to ignore it, it gets bigger. If we try to deny it, it screams our name. Our head has to take the red eye flight from a weekend of frolicking to a week of work. Though work is a four letter word, it is one word, we can’t live without. The letters don’t work singularly, they work together.

I think I have figured out what happens in between the days/daze. When Monday rolls in, we have to snap back into our position as a worker. We compare the week with the weekend and therein lies the rub.

On Monday, we are narrating our glorious weekend tales in vivid detail to our friends/coworkers and by doing that reliving them. By mid week, we start replacing work images with weekend images which ironically allows us to get through the week, but this method doesn’t work on weekends.

During weekends, we expand our weekend images, but don’t dare replace them with week images. Okay, I confess that I am not a theorist, but the above theory works for me. My head is the home of potent stimuli and invention that rivals any Nobel Peace Prize winner and I in my infinite wisdom will one day prove it to you all. Maybe the Pulitzer Prize is more my speed? Or better yet, the Blogitzer? (Daydreams about all of the possibilities.)

In an effort to make your work day flow a little smoother, or just assist you in your daydreams, I will leave you with facts about the tallest mountain in the world; the one and only Mount Everest. Just knowing that my work isn’t piled as high as Everest, I can get through the week a lot easier; that is as soon as I stop daydreaming.

Mt. Everest was named for Sir George Everest in 1859, the British surveyor-general of India and it was once known as Peak 15.

The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal and China.

In Nepal, it is called, Sagarmatha (goddess of the sky.) Some Nepalis also say that Sagarmatha, literally means "head of the ocean" or "head of the sea."

Tibetans and Chinese call it Qomolangma, or Chomolungma, (mother goddess of the universe) after the goddess Jomo Miyolangsangma
Chomolungma.

Everest was formed about 60 million years ago and has an elevation of
29,028 feet, or 5 and a half miles above sea level. This is equivalent to the size of almost 20 Empire State Buildings.

The first ascent of the peak was by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

Mount Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet, as well as many other less frequently climbed routes. Of the two main routes, the southeast ridge is technically easier and is the more frequently used route. It was the route used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and the first recognized of fifteen routes to the top by 1996. This was, however, a route decision dictated more by politics than by design as the Chinese border was closed to foreigners in 1950 after the Chinese invaded Tibet.

As of 2003, more than 1,200 people from 63 countries, including 75 women, had scaled the peak. Some 211, including six women, climbed the mountain more than once. As of 2003, 175 people had died on Mount Everest; 42 while descending after reaching the summit.

By the end of the 2007 climbing season, there had been 3,679 ascents to the summit by 2,436 individuals. There have been 210 deaths on the mountain, where conditions are so difficult that most corpses have been left where they fell; some are visible from standard climbing routes. About 150 bodies have never been recovered.

Climbers range from experienced mountaineers to relative novices who count on their paid guides to get them to the top. This means climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain an expensive permit, costing up to $25,000.

Most attempts are made during May before the summer monsoon season. As the monsoon season approaches, a change in the jet stream at this time pushes it northward, thereby reducing the average wind speeds high on the mountain. While attempts are sometimes made after the monsoons in September and October when the jet stream is again temporarily pushed northward, the additional snow deposited by the monsoons and the less stable weather patterns (tail end of the monsoon) makes climbing more difficult.

While conditions for any area classified as a death zone apply to Mount Everest, it is significantly more difficult for a climber to survive at the death zone on Mount Everest. Temperatures can dip to very low levels, resulting in frostbite of any body part exposed to the air. Because temperatures are so low, snow is well-frozen in certain areas and death by slipping and falling can also occur. High winds at these altitudes on Everest are also a potential threat to climbers. The atmospheric pressure at the top of Everest is about a third of sea level pressure, meaning there is about a third as much oxygen available to breathe as at sea level.

On May 8, 2008, the Olympic flame reached the top of Mount Everest, an emotional moment for China and the crowning of the Beijing Olympics torch relay.

See, work isn’t so bad is it? At least we don’t have to climb Mount Everest. We each have our own mountains to climb, so let us climb them with vigor and without hesitation. Let us climb them without looking back or looking down. If we climb them with strength and courage, we will get to the summit of life.

God grant me the serenity to accept the mountains I can not change, climb the mountains that I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Free Vacation

It’s vacation time. Time to push that paperwork aside. Step away from the keyboard. Kiss rush hour traffic goodbye. Pack your bags. Pick out your favorite destinations and strengthen your grin.

People are just working too hard these days. We are working hard to find jobs, working hard to keep our jobs, and working hard to retire. All that pressure to perform and for what - a ticket to an early grave?

Is a happy medium at large? Unemployment is rising as fast as work related stress. The fluctuating economy leads to companies downsizing, which means more work for individuals at the same or less pay scale and thus more stress at the cost of sanity.

Work related stress may be responsible for as many as 250 suicides each year, more than the total number of fatal accidents at work recorded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

These astounding figures are highlighted by the trade union Hazards magazine in a recently published report called Crying Shame. They are based on statistics in Japan where an estimated 5% of suicides are considered work related.

Statistics are not pretty and to avoid becoming a part of them, I want to invite you all on a free vacation. You don’t have to fight the lines at the airport, face flight cancellations, book hotels, rental cars, get extra cash, travelers checks, or go through the rigmarole of figuring out an itinerary. You don’t even have to move.

This vacation can be taken from right where you are - wherever you are. It’s free so you can be free. Ready? Let’s go?

It all starts with you taking some time for yourself. It could be five minutes of five hours, it’s up to you. The only requirement is that the time can not be interrupted.

Get comfortable in a position of your choice. It can be on furniture or off, indoors or outdoors - anywhere you are comfortable. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, hold it, now let it go. Repeat. If you choose a mantra or a word, insert it here. Do this about three times or until you feel very relaxed. Imagine your body as form, not substance. (You can also have someone read this exercise to you.)

Okay now that you are comfortable, see yourself at the vacation spot of your choice. It can be anywhere you desire - anywhere. You can go scuba diving in the Bahamas, paragliding over the Mediterranean sea in Barcelona, skiing down the slopes in Switzerland, gazing at the Colosseum in Rome, or the Mayan ruins in Mexico.

You may even get lost in the Bermuda triangle or find yourself banging on bongos in Bora Bora. Wherever you go, you will be feeling the sights, sounds, textures, and atmosphere of that place, while engaging your senses in a feeling of euphoria.

I like going to the Sistine Chapel in Italy just to stare at the ceiling. I haven’t been there in person yet, but I have been there in Soul. You don’t have to go to an exotic place if you don’t find any joy. The point is that you have the ability to shift your attention anywhere.

Once you shift your attention, you are accessing a deeper region of your Soul, the place that brings you the most joy and a place where you can always be at home.

Working is a necessity, but it doesn’t have to kill us.