Totally Woke, with a Toolbox

I’ve always really disliked the people who come back from a foreign land, claiming that their experiences have changed them and now they’re totally ‘woke’.

That is, I disliked them until just recently, because I just got back from a mountain hike in Albajeria and now I’m TOTALLY woke. I now understand, truly, deeply, what it means to be woke. I am as woke as a person can get. It’s not something really can understand, unless of course you’ve had my experiences. How wrong I was to judge those who travel, and thus knew so much more than me by default!

It’s funny, coming back to my ordinary tradesperson job, with my standard Melbourne ute toolbox and normal set of aluminium accessories. None of these things are to be despised; that’s what the monks taught me. They are the tools of my trade, that which places bread upon the table and allows me to continue living. I am to consider these tools as if they were family, not simply ‘my own’. These roof racks and bars…they are my brothers. My custom under tray draws…almost like a supportive sister. My toolbox? The fount of all knowledge, the grandparents of my livelihood.

I now see with eyes unclouded, which gives me greater joy in my daily pursuits. For as the monks taught me in our two-hour tour of the monastery and its grounds: even the swallow, in its majestic flight, must roost in the low places.

Such wisdom! Such insight! What’s more, we were allowed to discover our animal spirit, which turned out to be a wise and noble mongoose for me. I still remember the great words of the master sage with the mantis shrimp around his neck in a jar: he who takes the shortest path to wisdom must walk the longest road to companionship.

No idea what that means. Weird. I DO know that none of my friends want to talk to me anymore, on account of how woke I am. Mostly I’m applying my teachings to the tool thing. Like, I’ve never seen an aluminium toolbox in such a different light before. This is true woke…ness.

-Neil