Call it luck. Call it politics. Call it whatever you want. I call it a godwink that I didn’t get a ticket for a moving violation today.
I was ‘cruising’ along a wide open waterfront street in a local town when I spotted the police car. I looked down, and I was going a gentle 40mph on a 25 mph road. Oh! God! No! But, I didn’t get the ticket for speeding. I also didn’t get a ticket for not having my (newly re-newed) car insurance with me. That fine would have been expensive. However, I did indeed receive a ticket, for obstruction, and he pointed to the old, faded, sun-bleached malabeads that have hung off my rear-view mirror for over 20 years.
Immediately I felt saved by the god of my understanding. I smiled at Patrolman P., took the beads off the mirror and then handed them to him as a gift, explaining at the same time that they were a gift to me from a beloved swami and that I felt it only right to pass them along to him.
He smiled at me, his eyes were twinkly, and I could tell he was happy to only serve me with a ‘mild’ offense. He refused my gift and we said goodbye.
Om shanti, peace to all beings.
ps. I put them back a few miles down the road. 🙂