Just Giver

On the Resistance Ferry (AKA Reaction Ferry) crossing the Fraser River at Lytton, B.C.

I've generally resisted retracing my steps. Anything re or un in fact. Un-picking, un-packing, un-doing, re-making or re-moving. I usually attempt to find a way around, if there is a way around. And to-day there was no way around. I had to go back and retrace my steps. But not with out some mental resistance.

I'd just arrive back at the car park having had a picnic lunch, some distance away, among the sapling willows by the waters edge of our local river. Then only to find that my mobile phone had parted company with me. Only one thing to do, walk back to the picnic spot. About 40 minutes there and back. It was the only place it could be.

I'll not treat you to the wild rationalizations as to why I need not go and fetch it, enough to say I went. But what spurred me on was catching sight of a slogan on the back of a tee shirt as it walked past in the car park. "Just Giver", JUST GIVER! On the front of the shirt was an Oilers symbol. According to the Urban Dictionary Just Giver means, To give it all you've got!

In Buddhist practice terms Just Giver might well translate as, "Do the very best you can". That's no small thing and my Master would often say, "Do the best you can, that's all you ever can do". She didn't say, "Do the second best".

To resist however is a very human trait and to resist dealing with the consequences of ones actions is also common. Looked at positively the arising of resistance can be the very thing that gets ones attention and propels one forward. And that's just what a resistance Ferry does . The power of the water flow hits the hull and drives the ferry across the river. The hull of the ferry does need to be skillfully angled to the flow of the water to drive it across.

Here is an old photograph of the ferry taken in the 1950's.