Yield Right-of-Way...Manifesto of a Zen Buddhist

Friends:
Yield Right-of-Way....
Manifesto of a Zen Buddhist
Sign, sign everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind: do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign... Five Man Electrical Band, 1970

I once crawled across the US in my daughter's 240D Benz, 4 cylinder diesel, hauling her college stuff home and stopping at the national parks to run trails. It was 1990...I was younger and wilder then and in better shape!

Signs of all sorts ubiquitously blast the eyes with messages subliminal and stark, and at 60 mph contemplation comes easily. The church signs were the best...here are some I've seen:
A lot of Kneeling will keep you in Good Standing.
Church Parking Trespassers will be Baptized.
If you think this is Hot...God.
The Rapture: Separation of Church and State.

There are plenty of highway signs, too. On the long, lonely stretches of road I would try to imagine the many ways they might be interpreted...view these through the lens of my curiously warped mind:
Slow People Crossing
Slow Men Working
Stay Right (also, Stay Left)
One Way, Wrong Way
Dead End
Terminal Parking Ahead

See what I mean?

Late one afternoon in the parking lot for a trailhead in the Brigadier Mtns. near Santa Fe, I laced my fast-starts for a run. A fellow in jeans got out of his pickup, jerked off his shirt and did likewise with his shoes. Charles was his name, a total stranger, a carpenter he said. "You gonna run," I asked..."Yeah, man, you wanna come along?" With fists pumping, together we sprinted out of that parking lot, leaving all signs of civilization behind.

In spite of an oxygen deficit, we violently attacked 5 miles of the trail, two chariots of fire, like gazelles in the forests of our minds, defying all warning signs of danger...two middle-aged studs looking for afternoon excitement on a trail.

He led and I followed, our lungs gasping for air. Conversation lagged, but not until we had exchanged some personal info. Among other things, he was a Zen Buddhist, and when I asked later what his astrological sign was, he remarked, "Yield Right-of-Way." Strange, but true to Zen thought, I mused. That thought, "Yield R/W," has haunted me ever since that run, and the sign, "Yield R/W," has put a whole new twist on how I viewed life's signs.

The sun set that day on two exhausted trail runners in a common parking lot. With a handshake and a hug, two strangers retreated to their own uncharted life-trails littered with confusing signs. Carpenter Charles never knew it, but he left me with a gift. I have adopted his sign, "Yield Right of Way," as my personal manifesto. It has proven to be very useful in navigating through this strange drama we call life.

And so I now pass it on to you..."Yield Right of Way" to somebody today!


Bud
March 27, 2008