After all - It's a Small World
In the Beginning
At first, there is a bud. Then slowly develops a flower displaying its stunning colors and sweet fragrance. So too were David’s teen years starting out just as a bud waiting to bloom. Eighth grade started a new path for David. David’s only community had been his family. He had no friends of his own. Richard, his younger brother, filled that role. Richard also was a role model by his displaying his relationships with his friends.
Humans are drawn together. We hunger for fellowship. It is essential for our souls like breathing is for the body. It is something that is needed for living, but usually humans are not conscious of their needs. Those who have lived as a hermit mostly devolve emotional and communalization problems. We crave for community, some more than others, for with it comes security, freedom, and semblance of understanding life’s meaning. Rich relationships make rich lives. The foundation of a rich relationship is a deep connection built on loving respect and kindness.
At first, there is a bud. Then slowly develops a flower displaying its stunning colors and sweet fragrance. So too were David’s teen years starting out just as a bud waiting to bloom. Eighth grade started a new path for David. David’s only community had been his family. He had no friends of his own. Richard, his younger brother, filled that role. Richard also was a role model by his displaying his relationships with his friends.
Humans are drawn together. We hunger for fellowship. It is essential for our souls like breathing is for the body. It is something that is needed for living, but usually humans are not conscious of their needs. Those who have lived as a hermit mostly devolve emotional and communalization problems. We crave for community, some more than others, for with it comes security, freedom, and semblance of understanding life’s meaning. Rich relationships make rich lives. The foundation of a rich relationship is a deep connection built on loving respect and kindness.
Even the creation stories of the Bible tell the importance of human relations. The creation of humans, both men and woman, are the most important. The creation story starts after creating light on the first day, and the text states God said, “Ki tov” which means “it was good.”
On the second day God created the heavens, and God does not say these words. Guess you’ll have to ask God why this was the next time you see God. Maybe God didn’t like the interior design layout. Nevertheless, God states ”Ki tov” twice on the third day after creating the dry land and seas, as well as the plants and trees. Maybe God was catching up.
To add more to the upstairs design, on the fourth day, God created the lights in the heaven; and on the fifth day, God added critter of the sea and birds of the air. Again, on each of these days, four and five, text states that God said. “Ki tov.” Still every thing created is in “it is good” status.
On the second day God created the heavens, and God does not say these words. Guess you’ll have to ask God why this was the next time you see God. Maybe God didn’t like the interior design layout. Nevertheless, God states ”Ki tov” twice on the third day after creating the dry land and seas, as well as the plants and trees. Maybe God was catching up.
To add more to the upstairs design, on the fourth day, God created the lights in the heaven; and on the fifth day, God added critter of the sea and birds of the air. Again, on each of these days, four and five, text states that God said. “Ki tov.” Still every thing created is in “it is good” status.
On the sixth day, God creates the land animals and said, “Ki tov“. During the middle of the sixth day, “God created humans in God’s own image, in the image of God created both male and female God created them” [1:27], but this time the text states God said, “hineh tov me’od” which means “it was very good.”
On the seventh day, God rested.
In contrast, the second creation story [that’s right there are two creation stories in the first two chapters of Genesis] and the most know of the creation story, staring Adam and Eve Smith, falls far from the tree. This second story differs that God created man alone and “put him in the Garden of Eden to work and care of it” [2:15]. Everything in the world seems good. At lease it was until the second chapter of Genesis [verse 18], when the text reads, “ lo tov heyot ha-adam l‘vado“ which means “it is not good for man to be alone.” The first time in both of the creation stories that was “lo tov” - not good was used.
Continuing with this second creation story: God created what? Not woman or Eve. “God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of air” [2:19] In other words, God send the man out on a date with all the animals, and man said, “Sorry God, I didn’t like them. Too much fur, claws, and feathers. In just got in the way.” It was then that while man was sleeping, God created a woman from the rib of the man [2:22-23]. The second chapter ends with “the man and woman were both naked, and they felt no shame” [2:25]. Public nudity is okay? That's another story
On the seventh day, God rested.
In contrast, the second creation story [that’s right there are two creation stories in the first two chapters of Genesis] and the most know of the creation story, staring Adam and Eve Smith, falls far from the tree. This second story differs that God created man alone and “put him in the Garden of Eden to work and care of it” [2:15]. Everything in the world seems good. At lease it was until the second chapter of Genesis [verse 18], when the text reads, “ lo tov heyot ha-adam l‘vado“ which means “it is not good for man to be alone.” The first time in both of the creation stories that was “lo tov” - not good was used.
Continuing with this second creation story: God created what? Not woman or Eve. “God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of air” [2:19] In other words, God send the man out on a date with all the animals, and man said, “Sorry God, I didn’t like them. Too much fur, claws, and feathers. In just got in the way.” It was then that while man was sleeping, God created a woman from the rib of the man [2:22-23]. The second chapter ends with “the man and woman were both naked, and they felt no shame” [2:25]. Public nudity is okay? That's another story
The nuts and bolts of all this is that humans need interaction with others, and this is good. It is bad to be or feel alone. Humans know what is bad and what is good; what is evil and what is right. Fundamentally, we have the power of transforming loneliness and evil into "tov” [good]. With people in our lives, it helps control loneliness and evil. From it we get protection, liberation, and rules of understanding our lives.
It's a Small World
Throughout David’s life, there was always a growing connection to others. One lesson he learned during his very first teen years, his thirteenth year, while David’s family was visiting his father’s hometown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It's a Small World
Throughout David’s life, there was always a growing connection to others. One lesson he learned during his very first teen years, his thirteenth year, while David’s family was visiting his father’s hometown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh is where three rivers form a letter “Y” with the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers merging together and creating the Ohio River. This area is pegged as the Golden Triangle. The city is just west of the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains which makes it a hilly city. To David’s very flat hometown of the Chicagoland, Pittsburgh was a very mountainous city. He could not grasp that Pittsburgh’s hill were little bumps next to the Rockies’ mountains. Pittsburgh’s hills were gargantuan to him. For even some Pittsburgh’s hills would tower over many of Chicago’s skyscrapers. Unlike the most of the city, downtown Pittsburgh, the Golden Triangle, is reasonably flat.
As David’s father drove north to the downtown area in their rental car that they picked up at the airport, David sat in the front seat next to his father enjoying the sites. He felt the wind hit his face from the open car window, and watched how the sun peaked through the trees. They entered the Liberty Tubes, two horseshoe shape tunnels; the Tubes always enthralled him and Richard: How the car’s radio would go silent [only AM band radio were in cars back then], and the heavy exhaust smell rushing in through his window, and how all the cars had to stay in their lane with their headlights on. No crossing the road’s solid white line. It entertained them for two miles. They exited the other end of the Liberty Tubes and traveled over the Monongahela River on, what else -- the Liberty Bridge. From there was the downtown area of this former steel mill capital.
As David’s father drove north to the downtown area in their rental car that they picked up at the airport, David sat in the front seat next to his father enjoying the sites. He felt the wind hit his face from the open car window, and watched how the sun peaked through the trees. They entered the Liberty Tubes, two horseshoe shape tunnels; the Tubes always enthralled him and Richard: How the car’s radio would go silent [only AM band radio were in cars back then], and the heavy exhaust smell rushing in through his window, and how all the cars had to stay in their lane with their headlights on. No crossing the road’s solid white line. It entertained them for two miles. They exited the other end of the Liberty Tubes and traveled over the Monongahela River on, what else -- the Liberty Bridge. From there was the downtown area of this former steel mill capital.
David’s father shared his childhood stories of how steel mills were once the king of this city. Pittsburgh’s mills practically built the United States from New York’s Empire State Building to California’s Golden Gate Bridge. Starting at the turn of the 1900s, this area produced 33 to 50 per cent of the United States’ steel. The any tall chimney stacks that expelled thick black smoke into the sky, 24 hours a day, soot covered the city. Even at high noon the pollution blocked out the sun making it dark as midnight. “It was so dark,” David’s father would numerous tell his childhood tales to his sons, “The city had to turn on the overhead street lights so we could see there was a town under the black sky.”
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At a traffic light, the car made its first stop since being on Liberty Avenue before the Tubes. David notices a young adult walking in front of their car in the pedestrian crosswalk. His attire was quite fashionable for the era; Dark jacket with matching dark pants. You could not see his shoes since they were completely covered by his wide elephant-bellbottom pants. His left hand held a large matching color bag over his left shoulder, and his right hand was up and in front of him swaying from his wrist side to side. All while his hips also swayed side to side. To David, it was like watching May West in her old black and white movies. The same walk. David found this man’s walk funny and blew out a cat-call whistle through his open window. The man stopped, turned, and said while his right hand went limp at its wrist, in a very feminine voice, “Fuck you, honey!” He turned and continued crossing the street in his flamboyant May West manner.
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At a traffic light, the car made its first stop since being on Liberty Avenue before the Tubes. David notices a young adult walking in front of their car in the pedestrian crosswalk. His attire was quite fashionable for the era; Dark jacket with matching dark pants. You could not see his shoes since they were completely covered by his wide elephant-bellbottom pants. His left hand held a large matching color bag over his left shoulder, and his right hand was up and in front of him swaying from his wrist side to side. All while his hips also swayed side to side. To David, it was like watching May West in her old black and white movies. The same walk. David found this man’s walk funny and blew out a cat-call whistle through his open window. The man stopped, turned, and said while his right hand went limp at its wrist, in a very feminine voice, “Fuck you, honey!” He turned and continued crossing the street in his flamboyant May West manner.
“Now. Now, David. I taught you to behave better than that,” said David’s father.
“I know,” answer David, “but did you see the way he walked? And with that purse?”
“That could have been a briefcase.”
“No, dad, that was not a briefcase,” replied David. “It just like one of mom’s purses.”
“Just the same, that was rude and uncalled for. Besides, you might run into him someday.”
“Come on, dad. We are in downtown Pittsburgh, and we live in Chicago. Like we will meet again.”
“You never know, David. The world is a small place.”
His father was the man with a photographic memory; the man who was a walking encyclopedia. Why would David disagree with his father? One reason was that his father did not understand or fully accept society’s reciprocal actions and formalities, or its social graces and reasoning’s of etiquette. He did understand the need of dignity and air of decorum for human interaction. With this question at hand for David, his father’s statement about the world being a small place and the ostentatious Pittsburgh man was a draw. His weakness of understanding people versus his acute cognizance of probabilities could go either way.
The answer came five weeks later. In downtown Chicago‘s Loop, sitting in the same spots in their car waiting for a traffic light to change green, David’s father elbowed David to get his attention. David looked at his father behind the steering wheel. His father motioned to look in front of the car. David’s head turn to look outward and there in the exact same clothes was the Pittsburgh man crossing the street with the same bag and the same May West flamboyant walk
“I know,” answer David, “but did you see the way he walked? And with that purse?”
“That could have been a briefcase.”
“No, dad, that was not a briefcase,” replied David. “It just like one of mom’s purses.”
“Just the same, that was rude and uncalled for. Besides, you might run into him someday.”
“Come on, dad. We are in downtown Pittsburgh, and we live in Chicago. Like we will meet again.”
“You never know, David. The world is a small place.”
His father was the man with a photographic memory; the man who was a walking encyclopedia. Why would David disagree with his father? One reason was that his father did not understand or fully accept society’s reciprocal actions and formalities, or its social graces and reasoning’s of etiquette. He did understand the need of dignity and air of decorum for human interaction. With this question at hand for David, his father’s statement about the world being a small place and the ostentatious Pittsburgh man was a draw. His weakness of understanding people versus his acute cognizance of probabilities could go either way.
The answer came five weeks later. In downtown Chicago‘s Loop, sitting in the same spots in their car waiting for a traffic light to change green, David’s father elbowed David to get his attention. David looked at his father behind the steering wheel. His father motioned to look in front of the car. David’s head turn to look outward and there in the exact same clothes was the Pittsburgh man crossing the street with the same bag and the same May West flamboyant walk
David’s mouth dropped open while he watches the Pittsburgh man cross the street. Either his father paid this man to prove a point to David, or his father was right -- The world is indeed a small place.