Let the Sea Take the Rest
“How do I do it all, Bud? What can I do to save move lives in Haiti?! How can I help more people spark their lives and wake up?!”
I was having my tantrum moment with a powerful local coffee friend. His name is Bud. He is not what you would expect an enlightened person of the Buddhist tradition to be like.
He wears old sweaters with the sleeves cut and torn, with old scrub pants, long, white tube socks, and brown or (when the occasion calls for it) turquoise crocs.
Despite his initial uncomely appearance, he is what I would call a successful spiritualist.
He has taught multiple seminars on spiritual issues from quantum theories to dharmic enlightenment. He and his wife also run a retirement home. ‘It is an unlikely but perfect place to serve others, helping them transition in a humane way,’ Bud has said in the past.
On the particular day of my tantrum, Bud was seated reading calmly. He looked up and asked me how things were going. Enter my rant from above:
“How do I do it all, Bud? What can I do to save move lives in Haiti?! How can I help more people spark their lives and wake up?!”
He just looked at me a moment pleasantly, like the warm and friendly greeting your favorite pet gives you in the morning when it is not expecting anything from you as much as just appreciating you. It is quite calming just to be looked at that way.
“Have you ever seen the movie The Guardian, with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher?”
(I have noticed an odd trend that many modern gurus are pretty up to date on pop culture.)
“Yes,” I respond quizzically.
“At one point the trainee asks Costner, ‘What happens when you can’t get to everyone?’ Costner replied, ‘You swim as hard and as fast as you can, and let the sea take the rest.’”
There was something hard yet freeing in that statement.
I thought of our almost-wreck at semester at sea in 2005 and the necessity to simply yield to the motion of the waves.
I thought back to the times that I had almost drowned attempting some surfing stunt, in a hurricane or some foolish large-wave gamble.
Those moments found me swimming as hard and passionately as possible yet still I was subject to the tides and currents swirling around me.
Bud just went back to looking at me pleasantly, appreciatively. I knew the lesson was over.
“Thanks, Bud,” I said, hoping to communicate as much warmth and appreciation as he had given me.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I guess sometimes tantrums and big problems don’t require long answers. Go Bud!
True, Jason. He is a simple-yet-powerful one-liner.
Bud’s a gem!
Bud is an awesome, neat guy!
Dea, Michael, I love my random, brief interactions with him. Solid.