And Another Thing

You Shine LIKE THE (yes, YOU!)

NOT saying this just because it’s Thanksgiving and Christmastime and peace on earth and all like that, but hard as my brain worked, just could not quite put it into words, how I feel about you.

And then a voice from the past, right on time, did it for me. “There is no way,” a guy said, “of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” Which you are doing, whether you know it or not. You — you reading this — you are walking around, shining like the sun. So says Thomas Merton. And so says me. Thomas Merton was an American monk, not to be confused with a Shreveport-Bossier monk or a Spanish monk or a Russian monk. Once you put the loose brown robe on and start being quiet, you’ll fit right in with whatever order you’re assigned, it seems. But what made Merton stand out in what the average person like me inaccurately supposes is the one-size-fits-all world of monks, is that he was a prolific author described as a “devoted spiritualist and tireless advocate for social justice until his death in 1968” at age 53. The guy wrote 50-plus books, and not just because he didn’t have to think of what to wear every day. Merton was bona fide. He cared. He might have monked, but he didn’t monkey around. It is, in general, a quiet existence, the job of monk. But Merton, he could not keep quiet, not when it came to you and me. He cared too much. His thought that we were all special, all full of a special light, came to him one day when he was in Louisville, Ky., at the corner of Fourth and Walnut to be exact, the center of a

shopping district. It’s in his cleverly titled book, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. Don’t tell me monks can’t be witty. Time out for a couple of things here. One, who knew a monastery was in Kentucky? Merton’s was. Apparently, he was on a day pass. And two — probably because he’d been isolated and was now in the middle of all the actual people he’d been praying for — he realized he had a fightin’ man’s chance. These people were awesome! Sure, they were strangers. They were, as he was, flawed, either slightly or, like most of us, deeply. But they were his. They were the same people he inhabited the world with, and he wasn’t going to get new people. Neither are we. For Tedders, who started out as a youngster, as did you, the days are growing shorter. Life is short, we often hear. But life’s too long to live like this if “like this” is being mad at the slow group in front of you on the golf course, or at the goober who cuts you off in traffic — it’ll happen this week — or at the lady in the checkout line who writes a check!, and God help us all, doesn’t even start writing it until the cashier is done. Maybe we can do this instead: “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year and this time, like all times, is a very good one,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1800s. He was a bit weird, but I’m with him on this. Less than five hours ago, I was told a hero of mine was going to die, either tonight or in the morning. It was very fast, the illness and all, and there was nothing medicine could do. He’d lived a marvelous life, in his 80’s, but still … Photo credit The His final thought will not be of the driver ahead of you who Merton Center: http:// drives you crazy or of the holiday shopper who does the www.mertoncenter.org same. Remember, both were little people at one time who believed in Santa Claus. They are probably doing the best they can with what they’ve got. Same as us all. Step back and chunk some mercy and some grace out there. We’ve all been losers in need of a hand. And at the same time, we’re all shining like the sun. You really are. Thank you for that.

Teddy Allen is an award-winning columnist and graduate of Louisiana Tech, where he works as a writer and broadcaster.

Consider it closed! Consider it closed!

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