STEPPING INTO THE MYST

When I think of Binghamton, NY, the first thing that comes to mind is Recreation Park. It's not the Bible school I attended there. It's not the general hospital that I worked at in the evening. It's not Pancho's Pit where I went many times to get speedies. It's not even my old apartment that I enjoyed so much. And it definitely isn't the gas station where I worked nights listening on the radio to the many requests for "Those Were the Days" by Mary Hopkin. It is and always will be the park that had a carousel and a bandstand. You see, Rod Serling grew up only a couple blocks away. He based an episode of The Twilight Zone on the park called "Walking Distance." I actually didn't know about the episode until much later. When I found out, it made the park even more special as it already was a symbol of my place to be as fall turned to winter and I needed some assurance.

Because of several unexpected changes in my life, my time there was rather stressful. Yet, it was as if I  had stepped into a special place, a buffer of sorts and encountered people who were more like the person I really was. This was not the first or last time to have such an experience. But this particular time of  transitions  was quite remarkable and of course, well remembered. 

These are not my own personal Twilight Zone episodes. The various places and people are parts of life as it is, plus a little more. Stepping Into The Myst came with an ever deeper awareness that life is more than what the mainstream determines or the labels they use. For me, the mystical aspect happens in all of life, in all places, with all peoples, but it's usually only at certain times that get a sense of it or benefit from it.

To be clear, I'm not speaking about the mystical as defined and written about by many others nor of the mystical traditions that are in particular faiths. I'm not disputing what mysticism is, but I wouldn't want to be confined by it nor place judgments or limitations on anyone's understanding or experience. For me, being free is what makes it all work.

So, with that, I see Mystical Margins in so many places and in so many ways to include what is sidelined, overlooked, not considered, dismissed, and/or unconventional. I hesitate to give too much definition to what is free-floating more than it is anything else. Mystical Margins are not ironic twists in the warp and woof of life but places of new perspective, new understanding and new awareness as well as of connections that you otherwise wouldn't have made, of sightings that challenge your presumptions and of experiences that become the beginnings of change.  

The more obvious places are kind of misty to begin with.

While others are not.

You have to step into both in order a gain from what's there. Most of the time, it's a choice. But sometimes, it's too compelling not to or it's when you look around and realize there's no place else for you to be.


BONUS PIC

CREDITS: HUFF POST, MICHAEL SHERIDAN, CLARKE GRISWALD, 9 NEWS DENVER AND SOMEONE WHO ALSO THINKS REC PARK IS SPECIAL.