The Spray-Painted Limousine

The other day on a walk during my lunch hour I encountered a man spray painting a limousine. No, it was not graffiti. He was the owner and he was spray painting some portion of the car. It struck me as strange because limousines are associated with such class and sophistication. Someone spray painting that class and sophistication on, on the side of a moderately busy road—just didn’t seem right.

It got me thinking: this year has allowed me to see the world in a new light. I’ve started to see all sorts of spray painted limousines in my life and that make up society. I guess it’s another stage of growing up. But I’m seeing that a lot of what I thought were firm stable structures that support the weight of a messed up human society are really very weak and fluid as the humans that create them. You think that they are impenetrable tons of steel that are sturdily created elsewhere and by other hands that had confidence in the stability of the structure they were creating and expertise in how to make a good structure. And then you see a humble dude with the spray can painting on the illusion of stability and class and the very thing that made it seem so untouchable and sturdy.

This is what I see with my organization and a lot of the organizations I work with—non profits, governments, associations, etc. We see m to be powerful entities and structures not to be messed with. Glossy brochures, a nice logo, color graphics, and well written mission statements and other material is all that gives any one of the above legitimacy. In essence, it’s just spray paint—it’s a little gloss and shine that anyone with money (and education paid for by money) can buy.

Sometimes it seems the only thing that keeps us from falling into complete chaos is the repetition to ourselves and others the ideal to which we strive—what we are doing theoretically, what we are doing ideally.

Thus it seems in many cases the success of organizations, or any entity that is striving for something other than what they are, are articulate passionate people who really believe in what the entity is striving for, who don’t get tired of holding that ideal before themselves, their colleagues, and the broader public.

Learning of the intricacies of the spray-painted limousines is a strange experience. On one hand it feels like illusion and deception. On the other it just seems like a reality of human life and what I’ve learned in church all these years—we are not who we are supposed to be….we are getting there, but we are not there yet.

Should I pick up a spray can and help build the structures and organizations around us, push to make them better? Do I stand to the side and study the spray painters, the limousine itself—organizations and those who participate in them? Do I involve authorities to make sure all limousines are safe, that if organizations are human/flawed that at least they aren’t hurting anyone?

Or do I take a break from all this thinking and growing up. Maybe I’ll get in the limousine and drive it to my cabin in the forest….

Top 10 Sounds of Los Angeles

1. The mid-night howl: Once in awhile all the dogs in the neighborhood decide to have a little chat in the middle of the night. Summer, the beautiful coyote-like Australian/German shepherd with whom I live, often participates.
2. The cat’s meow: We had one hanging around this house wanting someone to adopt it. Someone came by to take it though saying “we’re taking a bunch to get fixed if you want us to take it.” I haven’t seen it since then. But it is probably one of the five I saw hanging out across the street the other day taking turns running half way up a tree, clinging for dear life before falling back down and letting the next in line take their turn.
3. Cockadoodledoo: folks next door have a rooster that is audible usually in the mornings.
4. Rock'n'Roll: The house next to us, the non rooster house, has the garage band. They seem to have quite a repertoire—who knew you could do so much with an electric guitar and drums?
5. Ice cream trucks: At least two or three different ones every night during the week. Weekends they seem to lighten up.
6. Helicopters: They are low and loud and shine lights into your windows looking to find the “bad guys” or something. My co-worker refers to them as the Ghetto-copter. http://www3.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/newword_display_alpha.php?letter=Gh) .
7. Seventh Grade Monologues: I am privy to any number of conversations between mother and daughters seeing as we do live in kind of close quarters. But my favorite ramblings come from one of the daughters who is in seventh grade. She has some of the best monologues announced to no one in particular. My favorite line I heard her loudly proclaim just today was “When I die I want my corpse put in death valley!”
8. Football: New as of last week, I hear loud and clear the announcer at the Coliseum- the USC football venue. They were playing Washington State. I also heard the band interjecting their spirited diddies in between the roaring crowds. While LA does not have a city team, most people ally with USC or UCLA. I hear that most are USC fans unless they attended UCLA. Me? No preference, I just know that the Coliseum parking lots are among the largest open spaces in this area and so when you drive by during the week it is spotted with locals doing laps, trying to get some physical activity in.
9. Sonic boom: this is not a common occurrence. But I can’t lie—I thought it was a little over the top when I heard it. I was on the porch talking to my father on the phone and was already having trouble talking to him over the car alarms and helicopters.

Drumroll please.......

10. Silence: surprisingly—while there are moments when multiple of the above make me daydream of living in a forest cabin-just me and the trees- there are moments like the present that are silent. And I wonder—how can I live in the middle of Los Angeles and not hear a sound?