way of the world

There’s a great scene in the movie “Grand Canyon” where Mary McDonnell is walking down an alley and this quite funky-looking homeless guy’s coming the other way, and as he passes her he mumbles, “Keep the baby.” It is a shockingly, unexpected, powerful moment in the movie.

One minute you’re walking down an alley in Los Angeles, the next you’re sitting on a bench on a mountain on Jupiter watching a tribe of orange monkey-things playing water polo. That kind of “Bang!!” in your life. Solar systems beyond the often quite useful and way less earth-shattering “Aha” moments.

I’ve experienced a few of those “Keep the baby” mystical interventions the last few weeks. Powerful direct connections, no way coincidence. A single snappy firework lighting in colors the bright darkness of a noontime day. Clear invitations to consider “How about this?” stuff.

They aren’t answers. There sure aren’t answers. But they’re not nothing.