Car Crash?

One early morning during rush hour, a tremendous thunderstorm hit and there was a multiple car accident involving dozens of cars.  Some of them crashed through a guard rail and ended up in a small to mid size river where the water was rapidly rising.  Most of the folks could get out and wade to the bank of the river, but one car, containing a mother and her 3 year old daughter were pinned in such a way as to prevent any of their car doors from opening.  Folks on the roadway and those on the river bank noticed what was happening.  Drivers on the road jumped out of their cars and into the river and folks on the bank turned around and went back into the river to help this mother and child.  Eventually, and happily, the crisis was averted and all managed to make it to the river bank where they sat down together to wait for the authorities to arrive and unsnarl everything.  As they sat, they began to talk about what had just happened.  The rescued mother started it off by saying,

"Thank you all for your help.  We might have died if you had not come to help".

One of the men who had participated responded, "Don't thank us, it was God who rescued you".

Another man said then, "What do you mean God?  There is no God - we were the ones who helped that lady!"

One woman chimed in then with, "It's just in our nature to help one another. Its the biological imperative of any troop species to protect its members".

Another stated, "I just couldn't stand the screaming".

And so the debate went on, eventually devolving into angry arguments and by the time the police arrived no one was talking to each other.

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Early tomorrow morning I fly to New Mexico to meet with all the other students of the 2016-2018 cohort of the CAC Living School and  I am a bit intimidated (?) as I read some of the bios of the participants.  There are long time ministers, missionaries, etc. and I wonder if I am the only Buddhist in the group.  This makes me weary when I think about it as it is colored with previous experience.  There is the generic being the Odd Man Out once again for me (I always seem to be the exception to ANY rule - or is that my selective memory and imagination? :)   Then there is the establishing of common vocabularies which is always a challenge even among folks trying to form a relationship based on similarities, (and I fantasize that the other folks in this program will not be particularly interested in my point of view/experience and in the finding of common ground as I am interested in doing).  Then there is the reality that to speak of a "thing" is not the "thing" and that is always frustrating for me when it gets too abstract (I mean really! How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?). And finally, my difficult history with "Christian" Fundamentalism is coloring everything already.  (It really is all closed mindedness I hurt with, not just "Christian", but while I do know some "Buddhist" Fundamentalists, somehow they don't hit my buttons like the "Christians" do.  Its got to be childhood stuff going on here).  One thing I think I can be pretty sure of, is that this school, and this program in particular, is based on, and is studying/investigating "Non-dualism" in the "Christian" tradition and that at least in theory I am more than welcome as there are even "Buddhist" segments in the program.  Another thing I am sure of, is that any "problem" I encounter on this journey, (emotional discomfort), will not be out "there", but is in "here" with my reactions and my reactions to my reactions, (remembering always that there can be no "outside" if there is no "inside" and visa-versa).  I am striving to set all I "know" aside and let everything in without resistance.  As we say in Zen - to have "Beginner's Mind".