“You might as well call me Omar. It’s my name. So when you get here, ask for Omar.”
The line then went dead. Of course it wasn’t a line anymore. The sound went through the air as electromagnetic waves for most of its journey. Furthermore, the air itself was irrelevant to the electromagnetic waves. That wasn’t the case as they exited the speaker of the phone handset. The air had to be present to convey the sounds to my ear, and the air had to be there to maintain my body in a condition to be able to receive the sound waves.
Any thoughts, I now realized, were able to distract me from my task. The truth was I didn’t want to ask for Omar. The bigger truth was I didn’t want to do what asking for Omar was going to enable. The more eternal truth was that I knew this was a moment where I could continue my karmic circling, or I could try to escape from it.
But maybe Omar was caught in the same loop. I didn’t know Omar. At least, as far as I recalled, Omar and I had never come in contact with each other in the bodies we were currently inhabiting. Somehow, I felt a warning this time, that I am pretty sure I had never gotten before. But the warning was late. I was already far down the path of decision. Pulling out now would inevitably disappoint, irritate, anger and infuriate at least a dozen people.
I folded the flip phone, put it in my pocket, and headed off to the subway station, intermittently sipping my coffee.
Halfway through the journey on the Red Line, I noticed a sign.
“Mind the Gap!”
It kept flashing. First in bright red letters, then black. I figured that was for the benefit of any color-blind people. Red doesn’t stand out to some of them like it does for the rest of us. I caught myself drifting from my upcoming decision. “Focus” I whispered to myself. “Focus.”
And then I saw it. Between the red and black versions of the Mind the Gap warning were smaller letters, which lasted an extremely short time. A nearly subliminal message. It took me at least a dozen flash sequences to make it out.
Merwegon Says: The purpose of all spiritual work is to extinguish your habits, thereby allowing yourself the chance to respond, rather than react.
www.merwegonsays.org
Hmm. Was Omar acting out of habit? Was I? Was this a clue? Was this the information I needed to end my slow dance with karmic determinism? Was it?