A Sukkah And A Traffic Stop
ServiceSpace
--Somik Raha
5 minute read
Oct 26, 2016

 

I had started to wonder what the Jews had been up to over the last several thousand years with their spiritual experiments, and a visit to Israel some years back only made the yearning stronger. The mainstream label of "monotheistic Abrahamic religions" into which Judaism is bucketed surely could not be the whole story. Most of what non-Jewish folks read about Judaism is head-oriented, but I was looking to be touched in my heart. It was only when I read Aryae Coopersmith's book "Holy Beggars" and his Awakin Call transcript that I felt my heart was being touched by an ancient wisdom that also felt contemporary. In fact, I find it hard to believe that a book like Holy Beggars could ever be written -- how could a book have so much heart in it?

I was therefore quite delighted to receive an invite to an interfaith gathering at Aryae and Wendy's home in their Sukkah for the last day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Aryae and Wendy held such a beautiful and sacred space and the participants (mostly non-Jewish) came with so much heart and sacredness that I felt deeply blessed. We all enjoyed participating in the ceremony and were invited to bring in our own traditions as well. Our theme was "impermanence" and Wendy shared about finding joy in impermanence. The Sukkot festival is a great reminder of the impermanence of life -- traditionally, it marks the 40 years of wandering in the desert that the Jews had to go live in temporary shelters. Jews observing Sukkot live in a temporary hut-like dwelling for a week to remember that time and develop gratitude to nature for sustaining us. Gratitude was a big theme of our meet, and everyone's sharing made it even deeper for me. I left feeling grateful not just to Aryae and Wendy, but their teachers as well, whose universal teachings of love and kindness seem to live in their hearts. 

As I left the gathering, I hung around for a bit in the neighborhood waiting for traffic to drop -- it was the pumpkin festival, and people were returning from this area. Even after an hour, there was no let up in traffic, and I had to catch a morning flight the next day. So I decided to bite the bullet and get on the highway. I had to make a left turn at a busy intersection and as my car was second in line, I thought it would work. Only, it didn't, and my car was stuck blocking the intersection. There was another car to my right also blocking the intersection. Other cars swirled around us. We got our opportunity to move forward out of the intersection soon enough when the lights changed, and I didn't think much until a few feet later, as I was waiting for the lights again, an officer asked me to roll down the window.

"Do you know what you did back there?"
I said, "Yes, I blocked the intersection."
He said, "We want to have a conversation with you. Please pull over at the next intersection."

I said, "Ok." He went back to his car parked a few cars behind me. I noticed my sensations and found a big ball of fear pass through my stomach for a second. Took a deep breath and pulled over at the intersection. The blessings of our gathering were with me -- I was able to see how my mind was working. Decided to slow down. The officer came up - it was a fish and wildlife officer. "You created a public safety situation." I didn't argue and accepted the situation, and also told them there was not much I could do -- "I had miscalculated. There was a guy next to me as well." "Oh yeah - we have pulled him over too. He's over there. You should know about the street condition when driving around here." I replied, "Am not from here." He asked, "Where are you from?" I said, "San Jose. Perhaps you can give out of town visitors a second chance?" He took my license and insurance and told me he will get back with a decision.

The next few minutes were precious. I had a little conversation with my self, which went like, "So, what am I afraid of?" "The worst they could do is to give me a ticket. So? What am I afraid of?" The moment I accepted the worst outcome, there was no fear. I realized that the Sukkah was a space of gratitude and somehow I had missed seeing the condition of the two officers. Here I was, sitting comfortably in my warm car, trying to talk my way out of a ticket, while these two young men were in the cold trying to keep us all safe. I felt really and deeply grateful to them and dropped all intention to influence the outcome in any way - no burden, just freedom. The officer came back. He had made his decision. He reintroduced himself, "We are from the fish and wildlife service and when we see public safety situations, we have to intervene." As he paused, I told him, "No matter what you have decided, I want you to know that I truly appreciate your service and thank you for keeping us safe." 

He paused. I don't think he was expecting that, and he didn't quite know how to respond to it. He then shared his decision, "We have decided to let you off with a warning." It didn't matter -- if he had given me a ticket, I'd still be grateful for the hard work they do to keep the community safe. 

I took away the gift of gratitude from the Sukkah the entire car ride home, and still feel it.  

 

Posted by Somik Raha on Oct 26, 2016


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