It Is the Handoff That Binds Us

Parked in the drive-through space at a fast food restaurant, I was listening to the radio, waiting for the poor slob who worked there to take my plastic for payment. The radio spewed its NPR drivel, something about Iraq or the economy or the Democratic race, and I listened intently. Of course I occasionally shook my head or made a snide remark about the content, once again (or still) disdaining much of the human race as a whole.

I caught some motion from the left side of the car. The anonymous high school student--clearly working the fast food drive up window because hey, it pays the bills--reached out to accept my plastic money. I brought the card to his hand, and he smoothly accepted it, processed it and handed it back to me. I'm sure he didn't notice my reaction at the initial hand-off. I was stunned. Suddenly, I liked this kid! I realized how close he and I were for those two tiny moments it took to pass the card from hand to hand. We were momentarily symbiotes.

Consider if you will the abject intricacy, beauty and elegance that is the human body. Think about the fact that just to pick up a card, more than 100 muscles are at work, and to do anything more complex with that card takes at least 50 more. 150 muscles working in perfect harmony to move my hand with the credit card in it to the window. Millions and millions of synapses firing in exquisite precision and timing to energize and enervate exactly the correct muscles at precisely the right time.

As if that wasn't enough, I was also acutely aware that the nearly countless things that my body had to do, the kid behind the open windows had to do, too. Nerves firing, muscles flexing and relaxing; a perfect, beautiful harmony of motion and energy and timing. His fingers grasped the card at precisely the same moment that my fingers released it. For that one moment, the awe-inspiring number of things going on as we both moved merged into a veritable symphony of synergistic will and coordination.

I smiled at him as he handed me my food, but he was already talking to his headset, taking the next order and closing the window, preparing for the next order.

I drove off, a little less judgmental about...well about everything. I realized that that tiny moment happens every single day. Any and all kinds of interaction we have with each other is a perfect example of symbiosis, of oneness...even in our attempts to destroy each other.

It became clear to me...again...and in a different way...we are all connected. Not just we humans, but everything. We all make up one massive, symbiotic being, moving harmoniously toward a common goal (utter annihilation or peace--we'll decide as we go), hurtling through space toward who-knows-what. Perhaps a thousand years of peace?