Walking a gritty block just south of the Loop in downtown Chicago, I received a message from the world in the sign of Pauly’s Pizzeria: LIFE IS A SLICE. That’s a great advertising slogan for a pizza restaurant. It also felt like a humorous reminder that whatever we are doing in our present lives is part of a larger story, a slice of a much bigger pie.

My mind went back to a time when I felt beset by many everyday worries, especially concerning money. I had flown to London, and boarded the Tube at Heathrow airport to travel to the city. When I stepped into the compartment, a roly-poly Brit who looked a lot like Santa Claus inspected me over his half-moon spectacles. He then addressed me with the following words, in very proper Oxbridge English: “The Buddha says, Walk on the bridge, don’t build on it.”

I was thunderstruck. For starters, the Brits do not talk to strangers on trains. Then, the unlikely words spoken by the stranger on the train were exactly what I needed to hear. Walk on the bridge, don’t build on it. The statement may sound mysterious, but the only mystery, for me, was how I could ever have forgotten this fundamental truth about human existence. This world is a bridge between the worlds we inhabit before birth and after death. It is a transit, among many transits, between different life experiences in different orders of reality. Whatever our troubles or our triumphs in our present lives, we must not forget that they are part of a greater story, a slice of a bigger pie.