We Are One

Ok, fun story. I'm sitting at a stoplight, alone in my car. It's about... I don't know, 2 pm? Anyhow, I'm kinda jammin' out a little bit, singing really loudly and dancing as best as I can while confined to a car and strapped in by a seatbelt when it happens: the Witness floats out of my body and I realize, slowly, that I am not alone in this world. I become aware that in each of the cars that surround mine, there is this sort of separate reality, that their lives are going on parallel to mine. And then I remember what Dass said: "separateness is... a creation of the mind" (228). Well. Ordinarily I'd be thrilled by how "unity [was becoming] more real and powerful to [me]" (228), but as my Witness began to bring together all of these separate cars, it dawned on me that people could see me. I stopped dancing and turned, cautiously, to the car next to me. Yeah... there was definitely a maroun van full of children staring at me. GREAT. Aren't I too old for this crap? How is it that I continue to embarass myself in such ridiculous ways?

Stoplights don't mean you're invisible.

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/eko-stoplight_1.jpg

If I become famous and this story (or worse, a video) ends up on my LAUREN ACOSTA: EXPOSED Hollywood story, I'm blaming Ram Dass.

Skeptical, are you? Don't be. The whole incident was obviously ALL HIS FAULT. First of all, I would never have noticed those kids staring at me if he hadn't had the nerve to tell me about that Witness character who decided to pop up at the exact moment when I was having a private dance party and remind me that it was not so private. Second of all, do you know what song I was jamming out too? Mainstream, you ask? Nope. Alternative, you muse? No. Oldies, you suggest timidly. I wish.

Ever seen The Lion King 2? Probably not. It wasn't the most successful movie Disney ever turned out. But Ram Dass, lovely man that he is, decided to remind me, kindly, of a particular musical selection from that non-award winning film: We Are One.

Let me give you the scenario: Scar had all these crappy lion friends who were all pissed at Simba after he defeated Scar in the first movie, so they were banished to the Outlands, which is just a fancy word for Horrific Termite Infested Place. Of course, Simba's kid, Kiara, becomes friends with one of them (and of course he's a boy and they fall in love and yaddayaddayadda). Anyhow, Simba is less then approving of their friendship so he sings Kiara this song about how he and her are like... the same person or something. I think he was trying to give her fatherly advice about not hanging out with the Outlander kid, but that part was lost on me when I was a child, much as it was lost on Kiara, who ended up marrying the kid. And of course, Ram Dass says "All...is One" (228) one time and I end up in my car singing and dancing to Disney while several innocents look on, probably wondering if I'm what grownups are referring to when they say not to talk to strangers. Awesome. Thanks to good old Rammy, I not only embarrassed myself, but also managed to be lumped into the same subsection of stranger as those creepy old men who follow you around in their nondescript white vans, asking if you'd like to hop and and pet their puppy.

It's like all my wildest dreams came true at one stoplight!

"Fun" story aside, I really do buy into the "we are one" mentality. I don't know if I believe in it the same way Dass does, but I feel it sometimes, you know? You're all going to make fun of me, but do you remember in Avatar, when the main guy talks about the network of energy that the natives believe in? OK. There's only one Earth, right? And we all live here. We don't know everyone on the Earth, but we know that everyone exists together, on the Earth, their lives running simultaneously. What I think of as all of us "being one" is both that we're all people, with emotions and problems and lives and love and loss and all that cheesiness, and also that because we all share this Earth, each of our actions has like... I don't know. A rippling effect, maybe? Like I'm sitting here in my front yeard, tap-tap-tapping way on my computer and absentmindedly pulling up weeds, and it seems like I'm alone, like what I'm writing and doing isn't going to effect anyone, but maybe that weed I just pulled up was exactly blocking a flower seed, and maybe now it will grow, and maybe a deer will eat it but maybe some kid will pick it, and take it home and give it to their mom, who maybe had a really terrible day, and maybe that will cheer her up, and maybe she'll decide to spread the cheer to someone else, who will spread it again and again in a very Pay It Foward manner, all because I absentmindedly picked a weed.

Just so you know what I was referring too with the whole "Pay It Foward" thing. This movie is really great and also heart breaking, and I love the concept so... GO PAY IT FOWARD KIDS.

And the moral of the story is: We are one, so look out the window before being dumb to make sure the other parts of out oneness aren't paying attention to you.