Lost and Found: A Vignette of Humanity

Prologue: On Wednesday of this week (November 23, 2011), I did something stupid.  Now, I do lots of stupid things, so this is nothing out of the ordinary.  On my way to visit a dear friend up in Ballard I got on the Link Light Rail in the Beacon Hill station.  The only problem was that my bag did not follow me on board, but chose to stay behind.  Not a big deal, except that this bag contained a computer.  Bear in mind the use of the indefinite, impersonal pronoun ‘a’ computer, not ‘my’ computer, as that would imply ownership.  I am simply a steward of this computer (a MacBook Pro), which was graciously purchased for me to use by bE.kON and Emmanuel Episcopal Church.  Like I said, I’m used to doing stupid things and taking responsibility for consequences.  If I leave my bag, book or phone somewhere and it gets lost or stolen, then I have myself to blame and I am out of that item.  But to lose someone else’s thing, especially an expensive one, with documents and passwords on it, is much heavier burden for me to bear.

The Possibilities: I’m a pastor.  I like to conceal said identity under other words like ‘curator’ or ‘community developer’ and sometimes for good reason, but this scenario allowed me to be found out, or exposed.  In this situation, one of two things could have happened: 1) someone sees the bag in the station and turns it in, 2) someone sees the bag and takes it with them.  I knew this and it was an opportunity to test my theology.  What do I really believe?  Will I really pray for my bag to be there when I get back to the station?  Do I think people are inherently good?  Or bad?  And so on (I think I’ll save those deeper thoughts for another post).  With the second option, a number of things could follow, but here’s what happened in this scenario: my bag and computer were taken, not turned in, and were returned to me. So, it seems there may have been a third option.

The details:  I realized that my bag was not with me and sitting in the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station as my train was pulling into the International District Station, which is three stops after Beacon Hill.  As soon as I realize this, I hop off the train and get to the other side of the station to catch the next train going south.  As I wait, I call Link Light Rail and they are absolutely no help because no one is stationed at Beacon Hill.  My train arrives and I pull into the Beacon Hill Station to find a man standing in the same spot where my bag was left.  He had been there for about seven minutes and had not seen it.  I talked a security guard, who happens to be one of the lazier ones I’ve encountered as a regular commuter, and he saw nothing.  So the theft happened in a ten to twelve minute time window.  The day passed and I kept my appointment with my friend in Ballard and then another one in the evening at the 9lb Hammer in Georgetown.  But as soon as I knew my computer was gone and there was a decent chance it was stolen, I got out my nifty iPhone 4s and remotely wiped my computer.  As I was having a 9lb Porter with a friend, one of my housemates who I had just passed at the bar sent me a text indicating that my bag had been returned with everything except my computer in it.  The next morning I stepped out onto the front stoop of my 16th Avenue house and on a chair sat my computer bottom facing up with the words, “God did not return your computer.  I did.  Ha!”

Behind the Scene: So, the question is how in the hell did I get this computer back?  And why the note?  Here’s my theory and how I make meaning of this event:  The one/s who took advantage of my stupidity were not malicious people, but more like teenagers who take a car for a joy ride and return it with no intent to steal anything.  I know this because there was an old iPhone, a checkbook and other odds and ends in the bag that was returned sans computer.  I wiped my computer and rendered it useless and essentially off the market.  The taker/s could have made a quick $500-$800, but not with a locked computer that has a passcode and the message, “This computer has been stolen please call…” Apple’s new app for locating your enabled products is incredible and probably is the only reason I really got it back. However, once the computer was useless, there was an opportunity to make light of the situation and me.  Here’s where the part about being a pastor comes in.  In my bag was the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, a set of prayer beads, a Franciscan Tao necklace, and about thirty event cards for an Urban Retreat that our house is hosting during Advent.  All these symbols and signs, not to mention the page that were likely opened on my web browser, all pointed out that I’m some sort of religious nut and thus available for some level of ridicule (and potentially some guilt on the taker/s part).  So he/she or they got a good last shot in, by reminding me that it was not God who gave me back the computer.  Take that religious guy.  Thank you taker/s.  I will.

Afterword: At the end of things, I’m able to laugh at the situation.  I’m able to laugh at my theology.  I’m not yet able to laugh at leaving a valuable piece of hardware vulnerable.  But, I absolutely love what is written on my computer and am considering getting it etched into the aluminum rather than just in the ink that will eventually rub off.  I hope that I get to meet the taker/s sometime and talk  about the whole thing.  Hopefully we can laugh together.  I wish there had been some courage to knock on my door and give it back to me.  I would have gladly made the invitation to stay for Thanksgiving lunch that was being prepared that morning.

Share on Facebook