Just Open the Door

Riding the cable car all around the city has become one of my great pleasures.  Yesterday was one of those sunny PERFECT weather days in the San Francisco that just called out  to me to be Outside,  So I joined the line of pleasure seekers at Powell Street  and as I am wont to do, struck up conversations with my fellow liners.  I often begin by asking people if they are locals and a conversation ensures from there.  I thought the man and woman I was talking with who were in line behind me were together, but it turns out that they were not.  So, upon discovery of this fact I said ,”oh”, (always the astute word out of me)!   The three of us smiled and they proceeded to say hello to one another. 

The Mason Line cable car pulled up to us and I told them that I wasn’t taking that line but that the very best seats, in my opinion, were on the outside on the right front of the car.  As the cable car pulled away they were settled in right next to one another in those perfect seats waving at me.  Who knows!

I also got my favorite seat on the next car – outside front of car.   A woman & man right around  my age, hailing from Michigan it turns out, stood on the railing right in front of me.  It was  obvious right from the beginning that our driver had a Big presence. He boomed out instructions such as:

BACKPACKS OFF

YOU, IN THE PINK,   MOVE OVER THERE

STEP UP

STAND THERE

YOU – GET INSIDE

The Standing Woman looked at me and said, “well, I guess he’s a man who knows what he wants!”   And we had a bit of a laugh together.  A sweet one.  Not a mean one.  And it softened my view of him.  Prior to that I was a bit, “well, he’s a bit of a crab.”   And that would have been that perhaps.  Everything else filtered through that.  But after hearing her words and enjoying our shared moment of laughter, I felt myself just more interested in who he was rather then in judging him.   Anyway, it turns out that the guy did do some really nice things as the ride went along, all in his very own particular blustery style.

At the intersection of Hyde and Powell the car changed drivers.  As he ushered in a rather large group of people he encouraged them to move into the middle of the car by saying, “closer, move on in, closer, that’s how we get to know one another.” The Standing Woman and I looked knowingly at one another and I said, “we got another good one.”

The Standing Woman may never have a clue on the impact she made on me yesterday, or that she helped me get out of my own way.  Right smack dab in the middle of what was perhaps self congratulatory thinking that I was so OPEN, she helped me see how judgment puts up a false front that masquerades as truth.

As I was walking down the street later I was telling myself that the reason I had met so many people who were willing to open up and engage with me in such a truly gratifying way, was because I was open.  But I don’t think that is the way it works.  I do believe that when I am open, I see things.  Things that are there anyway that I’ve just not tuned in to.  My frequency receivers are shut down  So, one way of thinking is, ‘if I’m open, I will be rewarded with_______________(just fill in the blank).   But I don’t really believe that there are any guarantees that by being open myself, people or events or things are going to open up in return.  So another to look at it might be, ‘open is what open does’.  Just open the door and walk through.  You might find Standing Woman.  You might not.  Who knows.  Just open the door.