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Today's
quotation:
One day my dad was repairing the light fixture in
the bathroom. He asked me
to hold one of his hands and to grip the faucet of the bathtub with my
other hand. I did this.
Then he licked the index finger of his free hand and stuck it
up into the empty socket where the light bulb had been.
As the electricity passed through him and into me and through
me and was grounded in the faucet of the bathtub, my father kept
saying, “Pal, I won’t hurt you.
I won’t hurt you.” If
I had let go of the faucet, both of us would have died.
If I had let go of his hand, he would have died.
James Allen McPherson
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Today's
Meditation:
What
a powerful story this is, and what a powerful lesson this
man taught his son. I can't read this passage
without realizing that I simply never could do what that
man did-- and therefore, I could never teach such a lesson
in such a strong way. That's okay, of course-- we all
have different lessons to teach in our own ways. But
what an incredible moment to share with another human
being, and what an incredible lesson in trust he taught
his son. He taught him to have trust in him, but he
also taught his son that he trusted him completely with
his very life.
There
are those who would call this action reckless, who would
say that the man was playing with fire and that he had no
right to risk his life and his son's life in that
way. These people may have a point, but that's
irrelevant-- the act is over and we should take from it
what we can learn from it rather than trying to categorize
it or define it.
This
father took a great risk, one person would say.
Another person could counter with the point that he took
absolutely no risk at all-- as long as his son held on to
his hand and the faucet. And this latter fact is
absolutely true-- given the properties of electricity and
grounding, there was no risk of either of them being
injured.
The
boy learned about trust, but he also learned the
importance of being grounded. When we are firmly
grounded, then the potentially harmful things that life
puts in our paths are really just like the electricity--
something that will pass right through us
without hurting us. Where we ground ourselves-- in
our religion, our skills and talents, our sense of self, our God, our
knowledge-- will be different for each person, but we
should search out that grounding with all our hearts, for
that's what's going to allow us to get through everything
we need to get through.
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