Knock knock. Who's there? Humility. Go away!

[I should probably preface these posts with a "WARNING: Thinking" precursor. Ok. you've been warned :-) ]
Muhammed* is in for his 42nd surgical operation.

 It was just tying his shoe laces that did it this time. When he tried to stand, he couldn't. The pain was excruciating! His lower back disc had completely slipped, his legs gave in as the nerves deferred paralytic pain down both his legs and he succumbed to four weeks of hospitalization, numerous diagnostic scans and two surgical interventions. He is now in recovery in a local hospital.

A road less traveled.

But throughout it all, no real word of complaint. There is a humble resignation to his predicament, even gratitude (!?) that he is alive and in recovery. He has known it far worse!
Muhammed was a paramedic. In his own words, there was nothing more rewarding than arriving on scene to a near drowning and restoring a young girl back to her relieved mother; or weaving through unlit, unpaved roads in urban South Africa to stem a bleeding wound from a drunken knife or a random hit-and-run victim.
I can't relate!
Tragically, one fateful night six years ago, a drunken student crashed through to the opposing traffic lanes and slammed into Muhammed's motorcycle coming in the opposite direction. Muhammed was thrown clear, was paralyzed through most of his right side, injured his neck, gashed his skull and would have lost his left hand had his mother not begged the surgeons to try and save it. He has limited thumb and forefinger use of an almost useless limb. The general consensus is he should not have survived such an accident!

Today Muhammed still chases his passion and runs training for new recruit paramedics. The enthusiasm he still has, for what is for some a  thankless, graveyard and traumatic work, remains infectious.
But sharing a hospital ward with Muhammed I am struck with a enviable human attribute; Humility.

Its a kind of humility that navigates past the vanities that collective culture wishes to sell to us as so convincing, so necessary! And by so circumventing the superficial it can dive wholeheartedly into the meaningful and immediately live; Really live!
While the rest of us get swept up in the oxbow lakes of distraction, divorced from life, those who walk this road tend to swim its depths.
It's in these individuals we hear the whispers of something Other. Not the "other" of empty philosophies or abstractive denials of a disengaged self-preservation. Rather, its the connectedness to Beyond so as to be fully engaged in the Now.
Its as though life's flow remains the background rumble of the river just over the ledge. If we dare to climb past the surrounds we are suddenly confronted with the roar of the rapids and all consuming currents. If we dare put our toes in (heaven forbid!) we suddenly know no other reality and long to dive deeper. The forests and its distractions are distant memories. We are swept away. Alive!

But I have become convinced of the compete incapacity for the human condition to actively decide on the Humble road. We can't choose. Its a low road. It hurts. It can be lonely. Not many walk it. It reminds us of our transience. Its scary ;(
And yet… those that walk back from its lessons are stronger. Find a high road. Find healing. Find community. And carry whispers of Eternity, something Other, Transcendent. And Live.
These people carry a whisper of something Beyond. I find in them the credibility to believe in a Life-after that inspires life-now. A Hope. A Resurrection. That's *not* escapist. A thread that runs through the Here-and-Now but continues into the Then-and-Beyond. Is that so hard to conceive? When the noise of modern life seems all consuming I guess it does seem remote; This Humility.
The predicament is:- we can't choose it.
The good news though, is that It chooses us :-)
Life is flooded with opportunities to humble ourselves. A multitude of forks in our road to choose. An accident. A loss. A disappointment. Invitations to Transcendence. A quite. A poem. A song. A sunset. If we listen. If we follow … where would it lead?
I guess there is only one way to find out (sry). LoL!

Muhammed, thank you.
I'm working on it... !

[..I did warn you!...]

*not his real name