DIY Spiritual Practice for West Coast People

Before you read this, I must tell you that despite my long absence from the land of my birth, I really am a true west coaster. I have a deep and abiding love for our hippie heritage, our huggable trees, our gay-straight alliances, our edibles and our smokeables, and our international vegan menu. Don't let the sarcasm in this post - or the fact that I don't like it when people are baked ALL the time - allow you to think otherwise!

Someone read my post about the librarian and said to me, "Haha, was that librarian baked or what, man!"

That really got me thinking. I have not been here on the west coast, in my own culture, for a long time. I have forgotten how to give people the benefit of the doubt. In this culture everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, because here, anyone, anytime, could be totally stoned.

Maybe a lot of the painfully and irritatingly obtuse customer service people around here need to be given that benefit of the doubt whenever they display the worst of our (otherwise good) west coast slacker/space-cadet ethic.

Maybe one in ten west coasters, people like my brother who's always happy to chat with telemarketers, actually gives people this benefit of the doubt on a regular basis.

Maybe this portion of the population is really significant, and maybe they are a part of why everyone else thinks we west-coasters are so nice and easy going.

Yeah! Maybe a key part of our laid-back west coast culture has to do with the inherently tension-diffusing effects of thinking the following, when confronted with crap service: "Although you are annoying the shit out of me by your painful obtuseness, I recognize that in this unique cultural milieu, there is a high chance you're just really stoned, and hey man, power to, I mean you gotta do what you gotta do to survive your lame job workin' for the man... Far be it for me to go all big city and get irritated with you! I'll treat you as a buddy, buddy! And I'll talk to you and think of you as though you really were my buddy and we were getting baked together! It's all good! No worries!"

Yes! I am on to something! I could think that exact thought loop over and over whenever I am dealing with annoying people in institutional and commercial settings - at the bank, at the doctor's office, at the grocery store... It could turn into my own little do-it-yourself west coast spiritual practice. It would be a way of converting annoyance and irritation into the characteristic west coast traits of tolerance and compassion! I could even follow the positive thought-loop with a simple breath meditation: Breathing in, this annoying person might just be really baked. Breathing out, we are all brothers. Breathing in, I see this annoying person as my best friend when we are getting baked together. Breathing out, we are all connected. Breathing in, pass me the lighter. Breathing out, I don't feel so irritated with all these west coast slackers anymore... Breathing in.... pass left... breathing out... ahhhh...