Jeremiah's School of Levitation
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Hide and Go Seek
In the morning, the sky is low and gray. The street is empty. It seems like life has ceased right in the middle of the night and the frozen scene you see now is exactly how things were in the dark. A car goes by, a lonely rush of air, the occupant still wet from their shower, barreling to the office, mindless, in the momentum of some radio talk show guy’s voice. The talk show guys get us when we’re hypnotized by the white stripes in the road. Not fair. We’re really not paying attention. Our minds are set on trying to unravel the grind and the road, and trying to be comfortable with the fact that we’re doing the same thing again, puttering from shell to shell, car to office. What is this doing to us? Oops, there’s that thought again. Quick, turn up the radio, sip the coffee, look at the soul next to you. Keep driving.
Think of the things you’ll say today, of the obstacles that will keep you thinking that you just may be mired in mud, and think of the big huge triumphs that you will have to make in order to win you over and make you think that tomorrow would be worth the drive in. You've got to find some room for yourself in the place where you work, the place where you work. Who’s place is this anyway? What random turn of life put you here? Where in your history did you ask to come down this road? You know, don't you, but you may not want to tell, because it might not be the winning answer. What did you really want to do? What are you hiding?
Now, there’s a question you can use for some office entertainment. Just walk up to your coworker and, in a solemn but accusative voice, ask them “What are you hiding?”
Think how much that will disrupt their day. Sure, they’ll seem to write you off, look at you strangely, or laugh and say something witty, or, depending upon their rank in contrast to yours, may get angry, defensive, or be humbled and fearful. Whatever their reaction to you, their inner reaction will all be the same: my God, what do they know? And, what am I hiding? You know this will be their inner reaction because, that would be the same reaction you’d have. Because, silly, you are hiding something. Everybody is. Some people have no idea what they’re hiding anymore, like someone who put something away to hide it from themselves, a bag of candy or a revealing photo, and have not only forgotten where it is, they’ve forgotten that they even hid it.
Other people have a very clear idea of what they’re hiding. So clear that when asked what they’re hiding, they instantly know, and, when you leave the room, they check their desks, or their lives, to see if what they hid is still there and if it had somehow been disturbed. Moved just an inch. What are you hiding? Some people are hiding small things, like a button from a deceased relative’s favorite coat, one that they’d plucked from the body as it lay in the funeral home. Others are hiding their real lives. Some are hiding affairs, both realized and fantasized. Some are hiding money. Some are hiding their past, others are hiding their intentions. Some people are hiding a recipe and others are hiding a novel.
What are you hiding?
1 Back at me:
What am I hiding?
How much time ya got?
