The Faux Pas Press #2 - So Dissappointed

THE FAUX PAS PRESS #2

A Weekly Thought

By JASON SCOTT CHAMBERS

03 AUGUST 2009

So Disappointed

I missed last week, maybe just to see if I was missed. I haven’t caught grief yet and I don’t know if that is a good thing. Again, I’m just trying to send some good, and today, I believe I have a moral obligation to express this one. Man has got to think about this. So, here is my question. Did you know that you are a disappointment? That is correct, you self-centered, coffee-consuming westerner. Yes, you are!

To someone out there in your circle of influence you are a disappointment. In fact, at any given position on the line of time there is one who travels parallel to you saying, “I am so disappointed in you.” Take me for example. “How dare you wear white after Labor Day!” or “Jason Scott Chambers, how dare you take a dump in the sink - especially before bedtime. How could you do something like that?” Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m the only man who has ever disappointed. Nope. (I know for a fact that I’m not the only man on earth who has ever dropped a duce in a public sink. Shuck N’ Jive, Dallas, TX, MAY 2007).

Besides all of that, here is my weekly thought. Ready? What disappoints you in others once disappointed others in you. Here I go again for all of you smart people, pretty much everyone I know in comparison to me. What disappoints you in others once disappointed others in you.

You look back along the line, the eternal mess going from Point A to Point B, cradle to grave. At every single point along that line there was at least one soul who was disappointed in a choice you made. Some applaud when you eat your weight in pizza; others frown and say a prayer for your feigning health. So, I ask another question. What gives you the right to be disappointed? Not trying to answer - really just asking.

I’m interested in this question because I was recently disappointed. I was in Chinatown, Honolulu. Don’t ask me why but there I was. A man approached me, a man that I didn’t begin to classify. No, this guy did enough classifying for the both of us. We engaged in a few trivial exchanges. Then, I found myself, listening to this guy, learning more about how he saw himself than I ever cared to. Not only that. But I also learned how this guy thought the rest of the world saw him.

“I am a homeless man,” he said. “I am a political exile from a foreign country so I could never find a job.” “I’m a piece of shit.” “You are clean,” he said. “You are rich, wealthy.” (Enough positive, self-affirmation and others will begin affirming you, I guess.) But no, seriously, I get really pissed.

“Like I should feel bad because I took a shower this morning and have put forth effort to build a life for myself. Here you are with opportunity all around you but you can’t see the forest through the trees. What a disappointment!”

Here is the crux. Here is what I can learn – here is what we all can learn. Compassion. Compassion does not obligate you to give more of yourself than you are able or run around saving everyone. It does not force you to give money or time or your life. It does not ask you to do for others what they could do for themselves. Nope. It asks, “What gives you the right to be disappointed?” Compassion articulates that you are in others as they are in you.

So, as you wave around that stick of morality, that rightness that you live and the hope of all that will come from unseen to seen.
Remember, as you become the Buddha or see the Christ shinning back you from that congenial reflection. What disappoints you in others once disappointed others in you.
Thank You.

Green Lights and Galactic Pulsars of Good,

Jason Scott Chambers
Oahu, HI

PS – I would like to thank all who responded last week. I got some excellent feedback on the story and hope to make you laugh more and more. Also, some new announcements. My wife is doing well. I’m going to see her next week – back to the mainland.

Invitation: I am running the Honolulu International Marathon on December 12th and all are invited to join me. I have set out to qualify for Boston. That’s right. My best and only marathon time is 3:43 so this will be one of the biggest challenges of my life. I have to beat 3:10. Do you think I got it? We’ll see.