It has been a 40 year long journey, but I finally moved to a place called Lucid Caring. The walking wasn’t all that hard, I took it one step at a time. But the first thing I heard coming into town was from a character who carried a sign, “Repent”.
This fellow is 40 going on a hundred, he basically wears rags and he wonders around town like he owns the place and yet acts like a citizen of the world. He came up to me this Sunday and said, “Are you a Christian?” This being part of the bible belt, I hardly batted an eye.
“No. That is not the best way for me to be. Why are you?”
“It is all about getting along in life for me,” he said in a matter of fact manner.
I thought he was going to tell me to repent. “Is it the best way to be for you and do you do any harm to yourself or others?”
“Lucid has her ways, you better watch out or she may make you pay a large toll.”
“I hear you buddy, I am trying to avoid any impulse I may have to spend any more life on down payments.”
“Do you dream?”
“What do you see?”
“I see imaginative, curious, compassionate people like myself.”
He was still carrying his sign and thrusting it at passerby’s.
I found out that the average wage was over a hundred thousand dollars a year in this place. And everyone had a car and a house. My homeless friend had a car that he seldom drove and a house he seldom went too. He made a government check each month that worked out to be just over 75 thousand a year. With all his property and use of food, healthcare and other material goods, he spent about 50,000 a year and the rest was accumulating in his bank account. As was every other soul in this place. This place was a bit like Walden Two, but with a twist. People got along better. Everyone tried their best to live a good life with out doing harm to themselves or others. In one way or another, there were philosophers, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and every other way of believing but the bulk of people considered themselves to be human and secular trying to fulfill a good life.
It sure does sound like a free ride. But let me tell you I have been hampered with insult and injury for forty years while exploring the benefits of being a compassionate human being. I have finally managed to put my efforts on a maintenance cycle. I still work my ass off each day struggling to find the ‘good life’ as I walk each step. But I think I am finding compassion and stability. I think I struggle in a good way. I have met some that do the same thing. We all live together in this town. Good luck finding a place like Lucid Caring, can’t tell if I dreamt it up, or it just feels like what I see.