So today I was going to rant about Deplorables - Deportables - Disposables - Despicables - Dreamers. But then I realized I can add nothing to the discussion right now without becoming upset - negative - accusatory - condemning - biting - bitching...
So today I want to offer praise and thanksgiving - for orange traffic barrels. This all came to mind this week as I was driving a civil engineer to an office party. I have always taken an interest in traffic patterns - freeway construction and planning. I'm not a nut about the big equipment that is used to move and reshape the earth. Instead, I am fascinated at how it all gets done - how in the middle of the utter chaos - there is transformation. More importantly, things are done safely.
In our discussion of roadway transformation, I told the young engineer that I used the image of orange barrels to teach 7th and 8th graders about the law. The Law - as in the Ten Commandments. But also, the law as in the laws that attempt to keep us up and operating as a society. One of my main points of focus was the simple commitment to make sure that each person who must move through a road project or must work within one - gets home safely. The need to respect and honor the well being of the other is huge. Orange barrels are like laws that are meant to secure the well being of all. They are a nonviolent system that counts on a common respect for neighbors and not just ourselves. I find that they are in place under the assumption that all are worth an ounce of safety. I have never seen an orange barrel strike out at a car or truck. They stand posted and in place and - at time - get trampled under the wheels of folks like you and me who somehow find our need to move along the way as a reason to subject the barrels and other drivers to our whim and wants.
I used the orange barrels to try and explain the simultaneous notion of you shall not and you shall. Orange barrels draw us a map - a picture. In that setting, we are being instructed that we shall follow the pathway the orange barrels open up for us. At the same time, it is quite obvious that there are ways we shall not take our cars. In the case of the command to not steal there is also the expectation that we look after the goods of our neighbor. The result - a safer community - a respect for our neighbor - order - even an awareness of what we each have and that we do ourselves no good if we covet the stuff of others. Protect it all.
In many ways, the orange barrels are enough to make for a safe passage. I would even say they welcome the stranger and they create an atmosphere of hospitality so that all of us can be put on an even plain as we move through the transformations of life that always seem to be taking place. Yet, many folks - like me, when I want the world to go my way and the asshole ahead of me is not moving as I desire things to go - are so self-consumed and self-focused, the orange barrels are a pain and a reason to bitch and complain and even turn against a neighbor. In those moments, the orange barrels don't move - they don't strike out - they don't move to give me more space than you might have - they don't show any sort of favoritism. They simply keep the path clear - they keep you as safe as me - even if I think I deserve to be given a better way than you. Orange barrels don't scapegoat - they remind us to honor all others.
The orange barrels - the law - are meant to nurture an atmosphere of care for the other and oneself. The law is not - in the first place - meant to punish. Though that is how we like to use it. I find that orange barrels put us all on a common level. If we are able to see the other as one deserving care and protection and the freedom to be who they are - and that is a foundational aspect of our society - we may be involved in building a peaceable society. Oh, that will be a pain in the neck at times - it will cause me to be late sometimes - it may force me to go a route I would usually not take, in order to complete today's journey. Though when the day is over, we all may end up at home with a greater appreciation for graciousness and kindness and self-sacrifice.
I need to be more aware of those around me. I don't need them to move as I move. I don't need them to choose the path I am going. I need to see them - know that they are not like me - see in them the worth they have. And then, though we are different and do not know one another and we may think those others come from the wrong side of town or belong to that group, we are able to build a road into a future that will be transformed for the well-being of all.
TRRR
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