This was CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. And maybe . . . maybe I was discovered at last!

DISCOVERED AT LAST!!!

Maybe by CNN . . . or the Vatican . . . or maybe . . . Hollywood!!

This was CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. And maybe . . . maybe I was discovered at last!

Maybe they somehow found out how great I was! I wondered which of my heroic deeds had caught their attention. Well, it’s about time! Before this, no one seemed to appreciate me and my tremendous accomplishments! But NOW -- all these excited photographers and reporters and TV cameras! And right here, while I’m still inside the airplane. They couldn’t wait for me to go down. So I just modestly smiled, and continued posing.

Every step of the way, from the moment I left my airplane seat, until I reached the “ARRIVALS” area, the bright lights blinded my eyes, as dozens of TV cameras and network photo-graphers continued taking my picture.

Finally I could not stand it anymore! I simply had to know. “Excuse me, sir. Why are all these photographers here, taking endless pictures?”

The man smiled happily and said, “See that kid right behind you?” I glanced at the direction where he was looking and I saw a fat boy, about 10 years old, totally bald, smiling from ear to ear, having the time of his life. “All these people are here for him. HE IS DYING OF CANCER. That’s why he lost all his hair. Chemotherapy. But it has not stopped the spread of the cancer. The kid has only a few weeks to live.”

“But why are all these reporters here?”

“Oh, The kid comes from a small town in the next state. His parents are Mexican. They’re quite poor. Now listen to this: when it was known that young Rene here had cancer, his classmates got together and asked him to MAKE A WISH. He said he wished to see Disneyland with his whole family.”
Of course his classmates could not afford to pay the expenses, but they told their parents, who told their neighbors, who told their clubs and civic and religious organizations, and they all chipped in, and they made more than enough money to send Rene and his whole family to Disneyland a couple of times. After the Disneyland trip, the extra money will be donated to Rene and his family.”

I took another look at Rene. He was still happy like anything! After all, his wish had come true !

I approached his Mother, talked to her a bit, listened to her tell the story of her dying son Rene, then I asked permission to pray over the young boy — which she gratefully gave — and then with all my heart, I prayed over dying Rene.

EVERYONE — everyone else in the airport arrival area was so crazily happy! Laughing, smiling and being so nice and friendly to everyone else! There was an illumination, an explosion, a brilliant glow that was touching all of us.

WHY? Maybe because Rene himself was so deliriously happy. Maybe because we were sharing in his contagious happiness. Maybe because the greatest secrets of our lives were DISCOVERED AT LAST!! The secret of happiness, of the meaning of life, of how easy, and how natural it was to love, and to share, and thus experience BLISS.

So dying Rene longs to go to Disneyland? With all his family? No problem, raise the amount! ANY amount!

I do NOT REALLY NEED that coke, that hamburger. I do not really need those expensive jeans and shirts and watches and shoes. And our family can, and will forego that vacation. My family and I will be so glad to offer all that we can for dying Rene. Make him really happy. Before he dies.

This is, after all, Rene’s last and final wish. We all want him to be happy. Our family will simply spend less, and live more simply, and share what we have. And we are all happy to do this. My wife and I and all the children — it is really THEIR idea — we feel so good, so noble, so heroic, so Christ-like about doing the right thing, as demanded by love -- for poor dying Rene.

“IT IS A FAR, FAR BETTER THING THAT I DO, THAN I HAVE EVER DONE.”

And so there is music in the air, because there is LOVE in the air. The best part of us, the best that we can be, is awake at last, and is in control, and it feels so good! So good to serve, so good to share, so good to enjoy less, so that poor Rene can enjoy more! This bliss in giving, this wisdom of love, this predominance of the other — is what should be. We are most happy — when we share — for the sake of those who need us . . . like poor, dying RENE.

We were making Rene happy, and that was why we were all so happy.

It is as though the sad and heavy armor of selfishness, the veil of greed had been pushed aside, and the spirit of nobility and love had taken over . . . .

We had always hungered for this glow, and now we HAD it, and we treasured it! And we wished it would never abandon us, this beautiful glow of LOVE!

And we knew it would abandon us only if we abandoned it.

* * *

But really, my friends, why do we have to wait till somebody is DYING before we love him, and serve him, and share with him, and make sacrifices for him?

AND isn’t it a fact that already, right now, EVERYBODY IS ALREADY DYING? And needing our appreciation, our understanding, our forgiveness, our friendship, our sharing, and our smile??? Right now?

FOR RENE IS EVERYBODY, and EVERYBODY IS RENE.

Including YOU. AND ME.



~ juni