A June 18, 2013 article posted to The Denver Channel webpage
(www.thedenverchannel.com)
featured a tragic piece describing how a road painting crew had literally
painted a white road strip over a dead cat.
It seemed to me to be a great metaphor for the human journey for we’ve
all had times when we felt as if we’d been run over by life itself. Later adding insult to injury someone comes
along painting over us as if we didn’t exist or matter.
For those of you who are
curious, the picture can be found at: http://media.thedenverchannel.com/photo/2013/06/18/road-crew-cat_1371565475709_430966_ver1.0_640_480.jpg
Recall the phrase “I feel like I’ve been run over by a
truck.” Life can be like that. Most of the time we hit bumps and get bruised
along the way. Disappointments,
challenges, and simple mistakes are like scrapes and minor cuts along life’s
path. But every so often we make really
big mistakes that alter our life and those of others throwing us into the path
of oncoming traffic. Most of the time,
it happens because we’ve been mindlessly going along and not paying particular
attention to the road ahead. It’s then
that we step into the path of a big truck and find ourselves in critical
condition lying in the ditch. For those
fortunate to have loved ones and close friends, they are usually the ones to
run to our aid, help stem the bleeding, and stand by our side through the long
road of rehabilitation and recovery.
Others are less fortunate and find themselves left alone on the shoulder
of the road to suffer.
We all make mistakes – some far worse than others. It can sometimes feel like we’ve been
abandoned and left for dead. Adding further
pain, someone occasionally comes along and mindlessly (or even intentionally)
paints over our emotional corpse.
There’s no doubt had we not wandered into danger, we wouldn’t have
gotten hit in the first place. But once
the damage is done, it hurts even more when someone paints over you as if you
didn’t exist. The old phrase “don’t kick
a man when they’re down” describes it perfectly. We’ve all seen stories of someone who’s
wandered into traffic, gets struck, then others continue to drive by as if
nothing happened. We think to ourselves,
how inhumane and insensitive were the drivers who left this person in the
middle of the road. Tragically, the
injured person sometimes gets hit again as drivers mindlessly go on their
way. We wonder what would possess others
to simply ignore a person in need. Yet
this often happens when mistakes result in severe emotional injury. We are all so self-absorbed in our own lives
and the crap we’re personally dealing with that we ignore someone in deep need
of our help.
It reminds of a tragic accident outside the small town I
grew up in years ago. Someone had just
purchased a new car equipped with a new technology – cruise control. This person had set the cruise just north of
town and mindlessly left the wheel to retrieve something in the back seat when
suddenly the car left the road and rolled seriously injuring the driver and his
passenger. You see, we often put our
lives on cruise control but forget we still have to drive. Drifting along in our daily routine we fail
to keep our eyes on the road and safely guide ourselves. We take things for granted and in our
absent-minded stupor, we find ourselves rolling off the road injuring ourselves
and everyone else with us. We may also
find ourselves wandering out into the path of speeding vehicles then try to
blame others for getting hit. Being
mindful is a life skill we can’t take for granted.
Consequences and pain are an invaluable component of the
human journey. None of us enjoys it, but
we learn and move on with our lives wiser and hopefully determined not to
wander into traffic again or leave our life unattended on cruise control. Physical and emotional pain has much in
common. As a child, you may have learned
not to touch a hot stove by getting burned.
The body reacts to things that can cause damage and harm in ways that
trains us to avoid the danger in the future.
Emotional pain functions the same way.
You figuratively wander into oncoming traffic, get struck, and realize
how stupid that was. It’s at this point
though you hope those that care about you will pull over and help, but it
doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes,
someone comes along behind you and simply paints right over you.
Over thirty years ago we had a small dog. Cute as a button and loveable, he wandered
into the street one day only to have someone swerve and intentionally hit him –
he perished immediately. There are
people like that who relish the thought of inflicting pain on others. But usually, the pain comes from an error in
judgment or self-inflicted mistake and we’re often not alone. Our words and actions often draw others into
the path of danger with us. Sometimes
they run into the street to protect us and sometimes they dodge oncoming
traffic to get to us when we’re down.
Regardless, human errors are rarely experienced alone. It’s when those you depend on and love decide
to paint over your emotionally dying life that inflicts even greater suffering.
Chances are, the cat in this story didn’t survive the
initial collision. Yet it suffered the
indignity of others simply ignoring it.
We have an obligation as a member of the human race to pull over when we
see someone injured and attend to their health and safety. Some administer first aid and others are
there to help pick up the pieces and work through recovery. It goes both ways. Sometimes we are the ones who stepped into
traffic and need the love and concern of others to help save us. Other times, it is we who are called upon to
attend to the needs of someone else. The
human journey is filled with obstacles.
We don’t always make wise decisions.
There is always time later to reflect upon the error of your ways when
someone stepped into traffic; those are lessons we each need to learn. Yet the moment of deep pain lying by the side
of the road profusely bleeding is not the time to blame someone for having been
so mindless. The value of every human
life demands we stop, render aid, and help the injured recover. Over time and after healing there will be
opportunities to reflect upon the mistakes made and hopefully learn life’s lessons not repeat them.
Duane Grove is founder of Connect2Action and an aspiring
quiet, reflective servant-leader.
Curious sage in perpetual development connecting us all on a journey of
discovery of our highest purpose. Follow
Duane on Twitter @connect2action and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook,
and Google+. Learn more about
Connect2Action by visiting www.connect2action.com.
You can follow his blogs at: mindfulperspectives.blogspot.com and
connect2action.blogspot.com
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