Have you ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Well, there are wrong places and wrong times and then there is being right at the scene where a murderer is just about to bury the body. But hold on, I am getting ahead of myself.
About 8 years ago I was backpacking through south-east Asia. At that particular moment, I was on a breathtaking paradise island called Koh Lipe.
Life was good.
I had a beach hut, a laptop, an internet connection and all the Thai food I could eat. And as we all know fresh Thai food in Thailand is the best food anywhere in the history of the world. Don’t argue I will fight you on this.
Besides the food and a hut not a few feet from the crystal blue sea this island offered three additional things I value… Sunstet’s, Sunrises and quiet.
Two of these things will come to bear on our story.
I had been out drinking with a fellow traveller until the early hours of the morning. We stayed up talking the talk that drunken philosophers espouse the world over. That is to say, nonsense that sounds like pearls of wisdom. These pearls were of a particular worthless type as our drink of choice this evening was Samsong a local Thai spirit that is best described as the alcohol equivalent of a mugging.
We had consumed a lot of the stuff. I am underplaying this a lot.
Anyhoo, the evening was at an end but dawn was just around the corner so not thinking straight I took it upon myself to go by myself in the pitch dark to a secluded part of the island to wait to greet the sun in silence. This was my first mistake.
Navigating to the beach was hazardous in my state as I was barely able to stand let alone walk any amount of distance, but with much in the way a drunkard finds his way home I found my way to my beach.
There I sat drifting in and out of consciousness waiting for the day to begin alone with my thoughts and alone by myself or so I thought.
Because not long after up rocks a guy with a body in a wheelbarrow and a shovel. He starts to dig a hole, not 20 feet from where I am.
Now here is where the terror kicks in. I know he has not seen me it is too dark. I know that I am too drunk to make a run for it. I know that it is starting to get lighter and eventually, I am going to be spotted.
If I try and run will he shoot me, will I be joining the other body in the hole?
These questions were running through my head. The icy fingers of panic were creeping up my spine.
The guy continued digging.
I tried to make myself small and not move a muscle.
The light kept getting brighter.
Then the hole was finished. The guy unusually gently picked up the body and rested it in the hole.
Rather than burying it the man sat the body up in the hole and got in with him. This was weird.
Eternities past. The sun rose. The scene changed.
The murderer transformed into a father with a disabled son. He had also gone to the beach to watch the sunrise, with his son. The only way to get him to the beach was a wheelbarrow as a wheelchair would have sunk. The reason for the hole. So he could sit him up on the beach.
He eventually saw me and waved and after the sun fully rose he carried his son into the sea and there, they floated around together.
The murder I thought I was witnessing turned out to be one of the most beautiful acts of love I have ever seen. The murder had transformed into beauty and joy of service and of one man’s dedication to bringing delight into the world for the person he loved most. It brings a tear to my eye and breaks my heart just a little every time I think of it.
After all, who am I to witness such love and at the same time have reality shaken to my core? It was like the universe throwing me a golden bone.
So what is the point of this story other than the obvious, maybe it is this… We are all certain of so many things that are dead wrong. Once in a while, you need to check your premises. You might find something extraordinary at the end of that discovery.
Remember: Action on insights, is the Answer.
Thank you for reading.
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fnord
