Only blocks from my house I run into Joe as he crouches under a car, repairing it radiator. He is on a side street… looks intimidating… and leaves question as to if is friend of foe.
I approach him, grab a curb seat beside him, and we embark on a most pleasant perspective.
I quote Joe in entirety. But before I leave you with his advice, I give you a personal finding, one that I have grown to cleave unto in my daily life. Forgive me if I sound like a minister. That is something that I definitely claim not to be.
“Judge not by the external, but seek the internal. In that may we all find our own humanity.”
Joe, the curtains are opening, and the stage is yours my friend.
“’There are two men sitting in a bar, up in Alaska, and they are having their discussion. It is theological topic. One man leans to the other and says, ‘I cannot believe in your God.’ And the other man says, ‘Why not?’
I gave him a chance to prove himself one day… And he didn’t. Did you give him a chance to prove himself to you, the other man says.
I went to check my traps several miles out of town. And this total white out snowstorm comes along and I couldn’t see nothing. I had no supplies and, basically, I couldn’t find my way back to town. So I got down on my knees and said, ‘God if your there, you know, I’m gonna die if you don’t help me!’ The other man says, ‘Surely you must believe… you’re here today!’
And he say’s some God*!* Eskimo came along and showed me the way back to town!’
‘So that’s all God has to work with is people. And he sends people everywhere there is work that needs to be done… Everything happens for a reason. We are all where we are supposed to be…. whether we believe it or not.
So everyone is an Eskimo, because we all help each other. Some people, even in being something bad, are being an Eskimo, because, they’re creating something somewhere. Someone that people think is crazy could be on the brink of some major discovery!
We always sell our selves short! Thinking that we are not nothing, but everyone has the possibility to be vitally important. We’re all Eskimos.
Time is actually a place, because when you’re trying to describe time you always refer to it as a place. Remember when we lived over there, when we hung out over there. Remember when we did this there.
Time is described as a place… it seems like. We were there, we were here, and yet, we see time as being…(pause)… Time.
But the only time there is… Is now!
What do I see in the future?
There is only now, and if everyone, or if I stay living in the now. And make my decisions on what I am doing now, based upon what I am feeling inside, you know, down there in the gut. I’m gonna do good.
We all know the difference between what’s wright and what’s wrong. We just don’t want to listen. We just want to sever that connection. And for whatever reasons people have, they do. That’s why I think we should all go into therapy. It gets you in touch with what’s really inside.
Pay attention to what is going on now, instead of for the future or in the past like so many people seem to do. I think people would be a whole hell of a lot nicer, or at least more sensitive to each other and get away from the ‘I’m thinking of my future…therefor I am not going to allow you to get in my way’ attitude.
If your just in the now, ‘I’m here we’re people there is nothing to gain.’ If you get ahead of me so what… where are you going… your not going anywhere, because there is only now.
It’s all about a faith.
God wants you to have faith… To believe.
I don’t believe in God… I know… I know… It’s fact to me.
When Jesus was asked, ‘Where is the kingdom of God?’ He responded, ‘To find the kingdom of God, look inside yourself.’”
Joe goes onto tell me about times in his life where he found himself in the right place at the right time to help other people out. We chat for an hour and there are too many experiences to easily express in this little blog. I’ll leave you with one of his generalizations.
“25 years ago, if I was walking around asking these questions, I’m curious to how they would have been answered.
And for today, don’t we see that what we are doing is causing a problem here? There are a lot of people out there trying to get awareness, but not a lot are doing anything about it.”
Joe is a very intelligent man, and with his sober perspective might we take his advice and grab our Mukluks.
His opinion is bold, and his faith is humbly intact, but in sharing a lighter side, Joe leaves us with a quote from Hollywood Legend Errol Flynn, “The most important thing you need to do every day is to shave.”
Looks like we will be very well groomed Eskimos.
Talk tomorrow my friends.
