wideview >>> xabian midori

HEY MAN:
What is your Purpose Here?

So here I am, 7:00 pm standing at a local convenient store buying myself a cold soda and feeling exhausted from the days activities. I just dropped my youngest daughter off at a nearby dance studio and thought that I would just kill sometime and wait for her instead of driving through traffic and turning around a half hour later to come back and pick her up. I have an hour and a half until I need to be back at the studio to get her.

As I am standing in line to pay for my soda I notice some activity outside infront of the store. There is a man with a video camera and several men talking to him who seems to be pointing off into the darkness. The man with the camera seems somewhat out of place. What I mean is, this isn’t the best of neighborhoods and that camera of his looks quite expensive. The other two men are dirty and ragged and showing signs of some serious alcohol deterioration. Their all talking together like long lost friends. Doesn’t seem like there is any class separation here.

Anyways, I pay for my soda and I curiously head out of the store. Remember, I’m a writer and an investigative one at that. I walk over to the trash can, which smells like vomit and urine, acting like I’m minding my own business. They don’t even know I’m standing there. I listen as the man with the video camera is talking to these other two guys. Apparently he’s trying to locate somebody by the name of Ty. I hear one of the men say that Ty had been beaten up last night pretty bad and nobody has seen him since. The man with the camera looks very concerned. I then see him hand each of the other two men some rolled up dollar bills. He then shakes their hands and says to them, “buy something to eat and then share it with the others”.

Well, by now I’m doing everything to hold myself back from going over to Mr. Cameraman and finding out more about him and his search for Ty. It’s right about then when I see more apparently homeless men coming out of the darkness towards our direction. I begin to think that its time for me to get out of here. As I turn and head for my car I hear this loud “what is your purpose here, man?”. I think to myself, oh, no! Here it comes. Bad neighborhood, at night. Why didn’t I just get my soda and get on my way. Then I hear in an even louder voice again, “what is your purpose here, man?”.

As I turn around to confront the situation I notice that these “what is your purpose here, man?” shout outs were not directed at me, but to the man with the video camera. The three homeless men had come up to the man with the camera and one of these men was saying in a loud intoxicated voice, “hey it’s Mr. what is your purpose man and his camera”. It’s at this exact moment that I lock eyes with Mr. Cameraman. He says, “don’t freak brotha, nobody is going to hurt you”.

He then steps over to me and says, “hi, how are you tonight?” I say that I’m doing well and then ask him how he is doing. He says he’s really sad tonight. That one of his homeless friends is missing. He was told that his friend had been beaten up pretty bad. He starts to put his camera back into its case when I say to him, “nice camera, are you from a TV station?”. He begins to laugh. He tells me that he has recently started his life long journey to “find the meaning of life”. He explains, “I took the leap of faith and am now on my path of purpose with my life”.

I have found my passion and I’ve combined it with my purpose. I’m going to travel around this spinning planet that we call earth. I will search out people from every walk of life and talk to them about their views and philosophy on “the meaning of life as seen through their eyes”. I’m going to interview and videotape all that I possibly can and make a life altering documentary called “A Montage of Life”. I’m going to be a wondering student of life with a video camera.

He says he wants to understand why so many people are in a peculiar kind of psychic sleep. He feels that most, if not just about everyone is in a hypnotized state. Their entire life is one great nightmare which they take as reality. They all go through life like sleepwalkers, bumping into one painful object after another. Never letting the shock wake them up. He goes on to explain that he has talked to and interviewed many people from around the world.

He said that he always starts by asking these people what they love doing the most in life. If they could be or do anything, what would that be. He says that just about everyone lights up and goes on and on about their passions, their dreams. They get a twinkle in their eyes. Then he ask them why their not doing that. Why they don’t understand that what they just told him was their “true inner spirit” talking to them. That they should be living the way that they just described.

I asked him what he’s doing out here with his camera? He tells me he’s following his “purpose” in life. That he is compiling video footage from people in every conceivable situation about their views and opinions on the meaning of life. “I’m on a spiritual journey now”, “I have awaken from my psychic sleep and have let my inner spirit out”. “No more matrix world for me. I have begun my spiritual journey and I am going to live, not just psycho-babble talk about, the life I dream”. “I have set my soul free.” “one day I’m going make the most moving spiritual video documentary ever created”. All with real everyday people living everyday life...."A Montage of Life”.

I say to him that it sounds like you have this all planned out. He tells me that he has nothing planned out. I live my life by an old Thoreau quote, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his own dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours”.

Getting to purpose in life and not concerning yourself with outcome. When you go beyond outcome in life you find yourself unconcerned about what is in it for you. Thoughts, feelings and behavior focus more and more on the fulfillment of your purpose. You go beyond success, achievement and performance as indications of your life’s mission. Instead every moment is lived fully and lovingly.

Material possessions cease to dominate your thoughts, which is not to say they disappear. They simply cease to be the focus of life. Instead your purpose takes hold, and you gain a sense of joy and inner harmony knowing that you are divinely fulfilling your reason for being here. There is enormous irony that comes with reaching purpose in your life.

Things that you previously believed to be so significant lose their allure. Giving becomes more important than getting because giving is in alignment with your purpose. This is why I’ve become known as “Mr. What Is Your Purpose Man”. When I ask people why they are not pursuing their true inner spirit I basically always get the same blah blah blah response from everyone. Don’t get me wrong brotha. That was basically me nine months ago. But, I’ve taken the leap of faith. I HAVE WOKE UP!

It was then that one of the homeless men standing close by came up to this man I had just met by the name of Mr. What Is Your Purpose Man?. He told him that he knew where Ty was. He quickly grab his camera case and started off into the darkness. All of a sudden he stopped and came back to me. He quickly told me that if he or anyone he knew wanted to put their message on “A Montage of Life”, that they could reach him with the information on the card.

Little did he know that I write for one of the better internet magazines. That his being on purpose was working for him more than he really knew when he shared a moment in time with me. Or did he?

Send your comments to Xabian!