Walking home this evening, I decided that it had been a long day.  So as I passed a small pub I decided to go in and have a drink.  I pulled up to the bar and sat down and ordered my drink and was just sitting there going over my day and how my faith in people seemed to be dwindling.  I hadn’t noticed when I was walking in, but sitting next to me was an elderly man, that if I didn’t know better was Ray Charles.  I took notice because it seemed to me that he was just staring at me.  So I asked him, can I help you?

He had this little smile just plastered on his face.  It kind of just made me smile a little bit too.  In a deep gravely voice he said, “well I don’t know if you can help me or not, but I’m guessin your needin a little help yourself.”  I kind of chuckled a little to myself and said, well how can you tell that.  He said, “well you wouldn’t be in here if you didn’t.”  I couldn’t fault the man’s logic so I said, “so why are you in here then?” “ You see that baby girl back there, I got to play her every night or she gets lonely,” he says. “So what’s on your mind young man?  There’s no sense stewing over there like a pig in a pot.”  “People are the problem  I guess.  I seem to be losing faith in them.”  “Interesting,” he says.  Can you do me a favor?”  I say “sure why not what have I got to lose.”  He says “hold your arm out.”  “Like this,” I say.  “I have no idea, “ he said, “I ain’t wearing these sunglasses to look cool, I’m a blind man.  Anyway just hold your arm out, you doin it.”  “yes” I reply.  “Now bend your arm.  Which way did it bend?”  I say, “ back to my body.  He said, “ok, now move your arm and do it again, and tell me what happens.”  I raised it higher and bent it again, and said,” comes right back to my body.”  He said, “aint that amazin.  The human body is made to pull things to us.  How many muscles you got on the front of your arm?”  “One,” I say.  “How many on the back?”  “two,” I say.  “Well aint that amazin, It must be twice as hard to push someone away as it is to bring them to you.  You getting

my drift?” He asks.  “I guess your saying that the human body is made to bring stuff to it not push it away.”  “Your catchin on,” he says.  “I’ll let you think about that one for a while.  How bout I tell you a story while we wait for that to sink in.  I’ve told it so many times in here that I gave it a name. I call it “The Ballad of the Blind Man.” “As a blind man I get around pretty good.  I can get to some places I been to a lot by myself.  I want to be as self-reliant as I can be, but sometimes I have no idea where I’m going.  I could be walking off a cliff and wouldn’t know it till I hit the bottom.  When I need help I have to ask for it.  I have to have faith in whoever I ask that they are going to get me to where I want to be.  Now there are a lot of different people in the world.  Some of them would send you the wrong way just because they have a nasty nature to their soul.  Then there are others who send you down the wrong road cause they are just as lost as you.  Then there is the ones that maybe have some idea of where you need to go, but just are not quite sure.  Every once in a while there is that special someone that knows exactly where it’s at and would love to take you there.  It doesn’t matter what happens or how I get there, eventually I always get to where I need to go.  I have to believe in people or I will never get anywhere.  So I have an unending faith in the goodness of mankind.  Most people are just like me.  They are wondering down their road just as blind and confused as me and we find reassurance being on the road with someone else.  Eventually we get there and in the mean time we both have gained a new friend.

Just because you can see doesn’t mean that you can get to where you need to go.  We all need help along the way and we never know what kind of help we might get or it might not be the help we wanted at the time but it was the help we needed and just could not see it at the time.   Just remember that everyone one is on a journey going somewhere.  It’s your choice as to whether you bring them into help with your journey or push them away and decide that their journey is not as important as yours.   My baby is callin my name.  So if you would be a kind sir and escort me over to her, I would love to play a little while you mix up the pudding that’s rollin around you head.” I escort him over to the baby grand and he starts singing. “I see trees of green, red roses too…”  What a wonderful world!