johnmdemarco posted on May 29, 2010 18:13
The public water park is the great leveler, a socio-economic blend that shoves aside common interactive barriers as people strip away formal clothing and slip into bathing trunks and two-pieces while throwing modesty to the wind. This is what is on my mind tonight as I unwind after a fun day with the family and good friends at Nashville Shores.
Hundreds of us on Memorial Day Saturday were united by common pursuits: Cruising through sinewy, darkened tubes; pounding up and down what resembles a skateboard ramp filled with water; jumping in a motorized wave pool; floating down a lazy river; and even walking along a lakeshore.
And yet, as I stood in line on several occasions in crowded outdoor stairwells jammed with human flesh and gigantic inner tubes, it was hard not to notice the differences as well. My friend and I tried not to smile at each other as we overheard barely-literate conversations centered on guns, grills and girls. I tried not to be astounded by the sheer number of people who were extremely overweight, tried not to contemplate the strain this places upon their quality of life and the cost of health care and insurance. I tried not to calculate the ratio of tattooed personnel to non-tattooed and realize how I was exponentially outnumbered.
In other words, I tried not to judge. And yet it was a struggle to not make a value judgment, a moment-by-moment dualistic comparison. I’m just being honest here, perhaps expressing things that many others think but don’t necessarily say or type.
What I am yearning to do is focus more on the questions I have rather than the comparisons or judgment. And I do have questions, and believe they are valid questions because they are there.
Among the questions:
- Why do so many folks from outside of Williamson County, Tenn., seem to struggle with putting together a complete sentence? Is there a literacy crisis happening in my new home state, and is the crisis widespread across the country? And what can I do to help?
- Why do so many people fail to take care of their health? What are the barriers to intentional, healthy eating and exercise? Why are so many young kids heartbreakingly falling into this same lifestyle? And what can I do to help?
- What is the deal with the proliferation of tattoos across perfectly lovely skin? Are they simply artistic (and permanent) expressions signifying how a person perceives themselves and the world about them; or are they efforts to latch onto an identity in lieu of the unsatisfying one that exists? What are the alternatives to the tattoo choice? And what can I do to help people think more deeply about the choices they make?
I’m big on questions, because when posed well they elicit two-way conversation. Conversation connects. Conversation triggers epiphanies. Conversation leads to a better world, reduces the onslaught of the ego and is the cornerstone for collaboration.
Perhaps most other people can just go to a water park, frolic and not dwell on such heady matters.
But for some reason I cannot. I cannot put my head in the sand along the shores and just focus on taking care of my own circle of peeps. I want people to be healthy, to tap into their greatest potential, to love themselves as they are and not embrace an endless, slippery slope of trying on new guises in the search for esteem. I see the delta between what is and what could be, the paucity of critical thinking that holds us back from comprehensively addressing the root causes of so many symptoms that have become our reality in western culture.
At the end of the day, I pray such longing is closer to compassion than it is judgment. Some might say just having the questions in mind is judgment in and of itself; I have to allow them their right to such a verdict while not necessarily accepting it. Popularity contests notwithstanding, I know I have to continue to ruthlessly peel back the layers of my emotions and motivations, in order to truly eradicate duality and let compassion flow like a lazy river stocked with inner tubes.