GONG #8
Picture this:
My son and I are driving during a nice, but windy, Saturday morning. I have the windows down and am smiling and contemplating my life to this date.
I think of reading The Alchemist and its similarity to a theme in Carlos Castaneda’s books where death plays a key role:
Don Juan tells Carlos about when he first met his teacher. He had spent many years as a slave worker on a farm in Mexico . His master got so angry with him one day that he shot him and left him for dead on the road. Don’s teacher came to his aid and nursed him back to health. Don Juan became an apprentice to him and the teacher sent him back to the farm telling him that he can learn his best sorcerers’ lessons under persecution and threat of death. This is when a sorcerer thrives. It is almost as if impending death brings about clarity and rebirth.
I was thinking about this lesson on death and the sheep herder’s similar situation where he was going to be killed if he could not turn into the wind. I was picturing the conversations he was having with the desert, wind and sun and how the wind kicked up to high speeds at the thought of him discussing his situation with the hand that wrote it all. While thinking about how brushes with death can change a person and cause almost a rebirth, a gust of wind pushes into the car and brings along with it dust. It picks up a piece of trash that I mistaken for something I did not want to lose. I grabbed twice for the trash and then looked back at the road. I was heading straight for the curb.
I turned the wheel and went into a flat spin and spun across the lanes sliding between a small gap in the median. I was screeching into on coming traffic and stopped a few feet from the curb on the other side. Miraculously, my son and I were fine. The car was no worse for ware and I felt like this was an embodiment of what I was just thinking about. GONG!
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