The moment before their famous walk across Abbey Road, Paul had to adjust something on Ringo’s collar. At that moment they were human. In the famous walk, which we’ve seen everywhere, they aren’t human anymore. They’ve become gods.
Between the time I was separated from my ex-wife and the time I met my current wife I worked very hard to fight loneliness. It was a fulltime job for me. Three hours a day at least. Meeting people for someone naturally shy like me requires intensive work. I would meet everyone I could. I had a date planned for every night so I used every dating service possible. I would talk to women in the street. Ask out people I met in elevators. Heck, I even created my own dating service I was so obsessed with dating. The archaeological remains are still around for my failed dating service, 140love.com.
In any case, I needed to do some homework this one particular evening. There was a girl I wanted to meet and I could see from her online profile. (Facebook? J-Date?) that she was into Kabbalah. So I went out to my favorite bookstore and spent the entire afternoon looking at books by Philip Berg and his son (or his father, I forget – “the Bergs”). I could pick up religions as easily as I used to pick up programming languages.
We met at that Chinese restaurant in the Mandarin Hotel in the Time Warner building. We were going just for the desserts (don’t waste more time than you have to) and, presumably, alcohol. She was British, a singer trying to make it in the US, and she was into Kabbalah. I think I’m still Facebook friends with her but I hope not because I’m going to post this article on Facebook. And she gave me her debut album and I lost it without listening to it. I had intended to listen to it but sometimes you just lose things.
“I didn’t know you were that into Kabbalah”, she said to me a few minutes after we had met.
“It makes a lot of sense to me,” I said. And it did. Why the hell not? The world is a little bit off-kilter. God put it on its course but we hit something. We ran smack into the moon. Now it turns out the moon might have left a little bit of extra-terrestrial life on the Earth when it ran into us. That tiny speck of life evolved and turned into all life on Earth. But now the Earth is off-course. It can’t return. Anything we can do to make it right seems ok to me.
“You should go to the classes with me,” she said, “we can study together.”
Later that month I would meet someone in a tea house. But I didn’t know that then and that’s another story. Then, sitting in the Mandarin Hotel, eating desserts, and talking to a British singer about the esoteric recesses of Judaism written by Madonna’s guru, I was in the moment before the moment.
Prepare better than the next person. Wake up 15 minutes earlier than everyone else. Read a little bit more. Clean that extra thread hanging off your pants. Doing the right amount of due diligence before an investment. Repeating that 10 times over for 10 different investments even though nothing has come thru yet. Writing the best post you can before you hit publish. Sending those first few emails to flirt, to entice, and then confirm a first date. Practicing the Daily Practice.
The outcomes are all uncertain. Life hasn’t changed just yet. You can be anxious for the outcome. Or you can relish the moment, knowing the preparation is in place. You’ve done all you can. Good things will happen.
You can say, “live life as if its your last moment before you die.” But there’s also, “live life as if it’s the last moment before you really come alive.”
Now you have to wait. If you did the right preparation, the moment will come. If you did the preparation with passion, with inspiration, with aspiration. Now you wait. Every day we have the potential for godhood, to be something that breaks us out of that fate. That careens us onto a path God had not intended for us.
Imagine you are Paul Mcartney right this second. You’re adjusting Ringo’s collar on his tuxedo. The noon sun is hot and bright and you’re uncomfortable in the clothes but every wrinkle has to be just right. You’re about to cross the street to make the famous photo for Abbey Road. And for the last time in your life, you are 100% human.
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