Just one more thing.

  I"ve been watching old reruns of Columbo lately. I dvr them and then I can skip through the commercials. Watching Columbo reminds me of how fun TV can be when it's not worried about converting you to a cause or preaching politics at you. Also, Peter Faulk is a perfect Zen character as Columbo. No ego. Doesn't come bursting in yelling LAPD Freeze! Doesn't even yell about being LT. Columbo. He has this cool frumpy trench coat and a chewed on cigar and he slumps and grins and puts himself down.

One episode he walks into a soup kitchen and the nun just assumes he's in need of a meal. He takes the bowl of soup and a piece of bread and sits down in front of one of the men he wants to question. He never whips out the badge. Doesn't get insulted that the nun thinks he's a bum. It just doesn't matter. He comments on how good the soup is and talks to the man he needs to talk with and leaves. Now I don't do guru's and if I did it would be Willie Nelson. But, you could do worse than Columbo.

I think there is a great lesson to be learned here. Just breathe and give people room to be human and don't try to convince everybody else that they need your brilliance or beliefs to function properly. This also works because I've seen some social workers that had a little bit of Columbo in them. Of course I've also seen some that had a little Napoleon in them too. Ouch.

When I was working on my degree I did an internship in Honolulu, Hawaii at a place for severly mentally ill folks who were on the street. The Social Work Director of this particular facility dressed like a street person. She rarely combed her hair and wore little makeup. Frumpy dresses and was very down to earth. She didn't have a desk and didn't sit in an office. She was out among the clients all day long. A rare person in that she checked her ego at the door and demanded nothing from others that she didn't give them.

I remember later as a social worker once I was back home in Alabama being mistaken for a client in a church one day. I wasn't wearing a suit and I guess I looked pretty casual. I was asking if they had a food pantry for  the public. I was doing it on behalf of a client. The person there asked me if I needed food. Now I wasn't trying to be as humble as Columbo and I wasn't as graceful as the director from Honolulu. But, I didn't get insulted either. I am thankful for food and shelter and I hate to see people hurting. I've seen times when I wasn't sure I could afford to eat or pay the rent and it's a hellish thing. Think about that before you condemn poor folks walking across the border with their families or people who can't afford health insurance. When you can't breathe or pay your rent it's hard to be a good upright citizen.

I wonder about the people who wrote Columbo though. Did they intend to make a Zen like character? I really don't know. But, Peter Falk played him beautifully. He would always seem to play to the ego of the villian. Telling him or her how crafty they were and how perfect the crime was and then start to walk away. But, then he would pause and touch his head or his face and wave his cigar and say "Oh just one more thing." Then kaboom. They would be wrapped up and delivered to justice.

I decided once that I was going to do the Zen meditation at the local Unitarian Church in Tuscaloosa. There are a lot of smart people that go to the Unitarian Church. University of Alabama Professors and transplanted folks from the Northeast that want to express themselves spiritually but don't particularly follow the bible belt fire and brimstone religion of the local population.

 That's okay everybody has to find their own path. Anyway, I decided that since I love to meditate and it clears my mind I would sit "Za Zen." Now, the only thing is I found that Zen Buddhism is just as religious as any other religion. It's just a little different but it still isn't free from dogma. Now, personally I have no problem with Buddhism but I'm not Buddhist and wasn't looking for a new religion. The teacher or meditation leader kept having us read out of a Zen text and kept talking about "Right Thinking." It occured to me that her "right thinking" was her own dogma and understanding based on her religion. Nothing wrong with that but I wasn't looking for a new religion. I'm no longer an evangelical and I don't feel the need for a religion one way or the other personally. But, I still "Identify" with my Christian upbringing.

So even though I (and I'm not going to go into it) left the dogma of "The church" as we say in the south. I still in my mind and spirit have an image of God as personal. You don't have to agree with me. We can still be friends but I wasn't looking to start, change or modify to a new religion. That includes the secular religion of atheism which masquerade's as "science" which it's not. Anyway, I'm just trying to find my way through this universe and I honestly have no interest in old testament vengeful angry old men or in the meat puppet view of secular humanism. If you do that's fine. I honestly don't think it matters much in the long run. I do think it matters how you treat people.

But, anyway. I read about a Monk named Thomas Merton who was a very prolific writer. Like him I had decided that even though I wasn't Buddhist I did have a lot of respect for the discipline of Buddhist meditation.

He wrote that he came to the point where he realized that he didn't need to meditate as a Buddhist. He could meditate in his own spiritual tradition which was Christian. I used to call myself a Christian Agnostic which Cindy (my wife) said was silly. You can't be an agnostic and Christian at the same time. I have come to think she's probably right. Like Columbo talking about Mrs. Columbo I've come to think that Mrs. Snead might have some points about stuff. Not always. But sometimes.

But, even though I don't really believe in religion these days I do think treating others as you would like them to treat you is a good way to live. I'm also partial to the Christian concept of the Divine becoming flesh out of love for us naked apes. So, I don't think I'll be joining the Baptist Church again but I'm not into the hopelessness of everything being based on a sperm lottery either.

Anyway, I try to be a little more like Columbo these days. Listen more and talk less and allow people to be human. Being human to me means that I make mistakes. I can be vulgar and lustful and self centered. Greedy and deceitful and hurtful. Being human to me means I can be self sacrificing and giving. I can be forgiving and love without expecting anything in return or demanding anything in return. In other words being human is being able to calm myself and try to understand how the other person might be feeling.

So, I try to give people room to be human. I try not to hate or get so offended that I have no regard for the other persons well being at all. It's not something I always manage. But, I have found that if you just go on with your life and don't wait on a chance for revenge that it makes you life better. That way you can get on with living instead of being stuck looking over your shoulder waiting for the jerk that hurt you so badly to get paid back.

I have lived over six decades this time around on earth. I personally do have spiritual beliefs and they are hard earned and still evolving. I can also well understand how someone can have no belief at all in anything or anyone. But, in my experience there is a purpose for this experience. I'm not sure how to put it in a neat little one size fits all package. I don't even want to do that.

I remember many years ago when Cindy and I were dating or just married. I don't know it's been so long. But, I made an ass out of myself once at a restaurant. Anyway, not long ago I read something on the internet where somebody said a certain celebrity was rude once when they saw them in public. I remember thinking that I'm certainly not famous. But, I am a nice person. I try to treat people the way I want to be treated. But, if long ago you had asked a waitress at that restaurant about me she would have said "Him? He's a jerk." That's because I had a bad day. I'm not a jerk and I wish I could go back twenty five years and apologise. But, maybe that celebrity isn't really a jerk either. Maybe they were just having a bad day when that person who posted on the internet saw them. I guess I say that to say this. Give everybody room to be human and give yourself room to be human. You can get back up if you fall down. It's allowed.

Oh, and just one more thing.
Don't forget to Breathe.

Peace.