SUBWAY STORY ON LETTING GO
There is a story that I woke up thinking about. It is a story that I wrote more than 5 years ago, but never published. The story is a lesson in surrendering or letting go.
A cousin of mine spent many years as an EMT in NYC. He drove an ambulance and responded to all sorts of emergency medical situations in the NYC area. When I was a young boy he told me a story which never left me. Maybe because I was too young to hear it or maybe because it is a powerful reminder along my healing journey. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it in over 30 years, until recently, when I was confronted with a “limit” situation. A situation, where initially, I felt I had no choice.
So my cousin responded to a call about a person being hit by a subway train. He expected the worst, but when he arrived he saw a guy wedged between the platform and the train. He could see him from about waist up and he appeared to be having a normal conversation with the people that gathered around him. My cousin and the other rescue workers thought they would be able to just pull him out. Upon further inspection they realized that this was a serious situation. Below the platform they found the lower half of his body was twisted and crushed. They soon realized two things, one, the area where the train was against him was keeping all of the blood in his body. Two, when the train was released he would likely die. They knelt down and told the guy what was going on and asked if there were any loved ones that he wanted to talk to. They got his wife and kids on the phone and he said goodbye. My cousin said the most remarkable thing though. Throughout the entire process this guy was not crying, he was not in pain, he was not sad or angry or any definable emotion. He actually appeared quite calm and clear headed. Imagine that. I realized 30 years later what was going on here. This guy had already let go. It appears he had no choice, but he did, he had to fully accept the situation he was in, with every fiber in his being. He was fully present, he knew this was his experience and he knew when that train was released that would be his next experience. There was no story about it and no fear. He knew everything was okay and had always been okay and would always be okay. This is the essence of “surrendering” or “letting Go”. You don’t try to do it, it just happens. And it doesn’t have to be a scenario where you die physically (however, a part of you may die). While death and severe illness may bring people to this place, it very often doesn’t and people hold on to the end.
The train was released, he bled out and this human experience was done for this gentleman, but he was free. What if you didn’t have to be in this position to be free?
P.S. I was later told a Zen Koan (which is a Zen riddle that students are told to contemplate in order to bring them closer to enlightenment). It is a remarkably similar story about a guy hanging from a tree by his teeth, but with his arms tied behind his back and his feet unable to reach any branch for support. Then someone walks by the tree and asks him an important question. Does he have a choice?