Green Lake Guru v1.1

An attractive young woman sat next to me in a coffee shop.

Normally when this happens, I too-attentively look for an opening to initiate a conversation. I feel a deep sense of anxiety that a meaningful future will slip away if I don't at least try to talk.

I am compulsive and neurotic in the presence of shiny things. 

On a lovely hike? Better take a picture and try to keep the experience with me forever.

The person next to me on the bus is reading an interesting book? Better interrupt them and figure out what they're reading and why.

The coffee shop is playing good music? Better ask the barista for the name of the artist.

Not today. I’m happy that girl was there, right where she was, as she was. I didn’t want anything from her. I didn't want to steal a look from her. I wasn't worried about letting her slip away. Whoever she was, she seemed like a lovely person, and I was happy that such a person existed, and I was happy that she was there at the cafe sitting a few feet away from me out of my line of sight. 

Today's pleasant moment reminded me of a nauseating one from a few months ago.

I was walking around Green Lake in Seattle with a girl I was dating at the time. She made a remark to a guy doing yoga a few feet from the trail; it was something about being a ‘humble warrior’. They both laughed, so it must have been clever. After we walked a ways, he caught up to us. He chatted about yoga with my date. He invited us to a vegan barbecue (the mere thought of which I found both offensive and disgusting). We declined, and he told us to have a nice day, and then he said, thank you for being.

There it is: THANK YOU FOR BEING.

That phrase is bordering on being profound. Yet, I can't shake the feeling that the most profound thing about that moment was how full of shit the other guy was.

I mean, in our brief conversation, this guy was claiming to be a self-taught yoga instructor, but I could see that he was novice. He may have had spiritual-awareness, but he didn’t have a sense of social-awareness: he didn’t really understand what it means to tell other people that you’re an instructor. When you claim to be an instructor of any kind, you should have achieved a respectable level of mastery.

I was annoyed and dismissive. But, even stupid people (read: people I find irritating) can have profound insights. Wisdom can be found anywhere: high and low, high or sober.

The moral of the story is this: I would do better in living my life if I could learn to accept phenomenon without pigeonholing everything (i.e. obsessively categorizing things into things that I should act on or not). Being is already complete unto itself. Seeing something shiny in the world— seeing something of value—doesn't always require action. Sometimes it's enough for things to exist, independent of us.

That being said, I’ll bet money that the young and shirtless yogi of Green Lake would do better to exercise sharper, more practical judgement of both people’s character and his own level of competence. 

....

Afterthought:

I feel a compulsion to take all of the objects into my world and bring them into my sphere of influence: I want to conquer mountains, influence people, earn money, debate, acquire art, judge the actions of others, share opinions.

I spend too much of my time and energy trying influence the world, to make it in my image. I should temper that impulse.