The elevator in my office building has been out of order for two weeks. Technically, only one of them is out of order, but the other one stops one floor short of the top floor. And my office is on the top floor, right next to an accident clinic—one of those spots that does physical therapy for people who were in car crashes. So there’s two ways to get to my office (and the accident clinic) right now: you can either take the stairs all the way to the top floor, or you can take the elevator to the third floor and take the stairs the rest of the way.
I chose to take the stairs leaving the office the other day. It’s a big, cavernous stairwell. Crazy echoes. You ain’t sneakin’ up on nobody in there. I wouldn’t recommend having any private conversations in that stairwell, because anyone else in the building who happens to be on those stairs at that time will hear you. Which is why I was shocked by what happened as I was descending the stairs.
I heard the footsteps before I saw the person. They were rapid footsteps. Now, I broke my leg on Christmas Day of 2021, and I’m always a little nervous of a repeat, so I tend to be careful on stairs. Some people don’t have that hangup. I ain’t hatin’. But these footsteps were fast. I’m not sure whether I expected to see a toddler running from a caretaker or Rocky Balboa training, I just know I didn’t expect to see what I saw.
What I saw was a construction worker charging up the stairs with his arms stuck straight behind him—in a full on Naruto run. If you’re not a nerd and don’t know what that is, don’t worry, I got you covered. I saw a grown man doing this up the stairs:
He was so in the moment that he didn’t hear me coming down the stairs or notice me until I’d stepped to the side to avoid getting obliterated on the second story. Once he noticed me, he was very apologetic and slightly embarrassed.
I assured him that everything was all good. But I regret the things I didn’t say in that moment. And so, I’ll say them here:
Dear Naruto Running Construction Worker Dude,
I wish you weren’t embarrassed about Naruto running up them stairs. If I’m honest? I was sort of jealous. In that moment, I saw joy in action.
You’d clearly been hard at work. I don’t imagine you were too excited to find that the elevator was out of order. But you took a situation that might’ve compounded whatever frustrations you felt that day and turned it into an opportunity to have fun.
I have never in my life seen a grown man Naruto run up a stairwell before. It put a smile on my face. And then it made me wonder why we don’t see people doing silly stuff like that more often.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen lots of people (way too many, in my estimation) set up camera tripods to record themselves doing silly things for the internet. But that’s not what this was. This was you doing something silly that no one would ever see because it made you happy. Except someone did see it. I saw it. I saw you stick your arms out behind your back and Naruto run up those stairs. And it spoke to my soul.
In that moment, I recognized that joy must be practiced. In this world of ours, things happen. Some of those things happen as a result of our actions. Some of those things happen because we share this world with other people. It wasn’t your fault that elevator was broken. (At least, I don’t think it was 🧐) But you didn’t let that rob you of an opportunity to practice joy. Instead, you juiced a cup of joy out of a rock. And when you did that, you shared some of that joy with me.
Thank you for choosing joy for yourself. It looked so good I decided I’d have the same.
I hope they fix that doggone elevator. And I hope that, even after they do, you find opportunities to stick your arms out behind your back and run up the stairs anyway. Just because it makes you happy.
That’s how I encountered God in a stairwell.
With love,
Trey
This is how we do it…
I’m able to put out most of my writing (including this lil’ hit above) free of cost for two reasons: 1) I like doing this stuff, and 2) there are people who pay to subscribe to this newsletter.
Now eventually, all of these writings (even the free ones) tend to go into an archive. But paying subscribers don’t have to worry about that. They can see all that stuff whenever. In addition, they get access to monthly Q&As and other exclusives. For the full experience at The Son Do Move and to support me and my work, you can become a paying subscriber.
While you’re here…
My first book (!!!) Theologizin’ Bigger is now available for preorder!
You can order it at all of your favorite online retailers & booksellers! And you should order it. Right now! If you do, it’ll be on your hands on January 16, and I think that’s pretty dope.
And everyone who preorders can fill out this form and get a free download of Seven Days of Theologizin’ AAAAND six months of free, premium access to The Son Do Move
If you’re like me, you hate waiting for books. And because I’m for the people, I’ve worked out a solution for those who want to read it and wanna read it NOW. While we’re going to have to cap it eventually, we do have some space left on the launch team.
Everyone who joins the launch team will receive an early access copy of the book and access to a Facebook group full of other launch team early readers. It’s basically a book club before the book even drops! If you want to participate, fill out this quick form here. You can even invite a friend so you have a reading partner!
Until the next time: be loved, beloved.
One of the things that cracks me up when I watch anime is that nobody I have ever known runs like they do in anime. I LOVE that you encountered someone in the real world doing this. What a joy!
Bruh... not me crying by the unbothered, freeness of Naruto man... this a beautiful post, bro