Chance = Change

Elevators as shrines..to what? Shrines to the letting go of control, shrines to the surrender of self to electricity and gravity...elevators are shrines to the art of flying straight up! I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times i went onto an elevator while i lived in Abingdon, Virginia. In fact, as I sit here at my desk, I can only think of one time down South when an elevator decided my fate , and that was when we stayed at the Meadowview Conference Center in Kingsport , while performing for the Chamber of Commerce Dinner there. Oh yeah: the Hospital too. So, here I am, back in the "city vertical", New York City, where elevators are the numerous equivalent of cars in Los Angeles, and where the traffic going up and down is as thick, if not thicker, than the traffic on the ground, and I realized something: elevators are enclosed pods of solitude and quiet, shaping our time and space for a brief period, and , despite all our button pushing, still going places that we do not intend them to, thanks to the democracy of elevator ettiquette: first pushed, first served.We are forced to face our selves in the elevator's square footage. We do not look at others, when there are others on board, but rather look above our heads at the lit numbers, like some writing on a magical tablet. But most importantly, THE ELEVATOR WILL GO WHERE IT GOES AND THERE IS OFTEN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. It holds our lives in its cagey hands. It takes us where it will. And if we are smart (or as desperate as I felt the other day) we will use the time to meditate on the nature of time and motion. We will be grateful for the breather that our own particular elevator provides in that moment. Elevators as containers for the souls of seekers: praise to Buddha! We come, we breathe, we rise! We audition.