| | In the ordinary, God resides.
God taught me this simple truth in college. One day, on the way to class, I put on my earphones and turned a round plastic knob. With a beep, my cd player began the first track of a David Crowder Band cd. While on the way, I watched dozens of people pass me. A simple thought crept into my mind.
I may pray.
Permission to pray. I felt it that way. I realized that a person may pray to God whenever he or she wants. We are given such a privilege. You must understand, this changed my life. I began to pray outside of set places, set times, set moods. When you pray in the ordinary, your eyes change. You see traces of holy-ness underneath smiles, breaths of wind, coincidental meetings with friends. They become holy moments. Moments of praise.
Today, a customer purchased a trash can. Not any trash can. A Simple Human sensor-activated, one-hundred-ninety-nine-dollar trash can. I have a nickname for this particular trash can. I call it "the magic."
About fifteen minutes before this moment, I noticed this man checking out our trash cans. So I approached him. "Satisfying, isn't it? The way the lid closes," I said. I stepped on a similar can. Then, I mimicked the lid with my palms and made a faint fssshhhh sound.
The man looked surprised. Then he laughed.
Continuing, I said, "But have you seen the magic?" I stuck my shoe in the sensor. The magic, noticing my presence, obeyed by opening its lid. I swept my arms around the trash can with a grin. "And to hold it open-" I pressed a button and the lid bent further, then paused.
"Yeah, I saw it. It's awesome. I'm thinking about getting it."
"You do that." I nodded, then walked back to the registers, where I was scheduled to be.
Fifteen minutes later, the man puts a large box on the counter in front of my coworker. The magic. He had a big smile.
I smiled. "Yeaaaaa! You decided to get it? The magic? Oh man," I exclaimed. I hopped beside my counter and walked over.
He turned to me, nodding.
We high fived.
After he left, my coworker came up to me. She whispers, "How lazy do you have to be to buy a sensor trash can?"
My inner self replies, "What?"
I like to think I am unshackled by dollars. But do we not judge a product, a job, a man... based on its price tag? Do we not pity a man who doesn't make the kind of money you do, or criticize a man who buys the kind of luxury you would never?
Guilty.
But today, when I, a retail employee gave a customer a high five in a joyful moment, I like to think that our humanness trumped our inhibition. I like to think we said a collective fuck you to the $199 price tag. I like to think we shared a holy moment.
I think a holy noun (a person, place, or thing) is a noun where one or more people recognize and consistently share in an experience where God is present. Living. True. That's not a very restrictive definition.
Yet... aren't these holy nouns rare? |
| | Posted 10/2/2007 10:05 PM - 61 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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