All Things Else

From Poems From the Sanskrit , translated by John Brough ©1977:

Water to quench a blaze,
Shade to keep off the sun's fierce light,
Goad for the elephant in rut,
Stick for the ox and mule,
Herbs to subdue disease,
Spells for the poison serpent's bite--
All things else have an antidote:
Nothing can cure a fool.

~Anonymous

Time, Time, Time; Look What's Become of Me…

From Poems From the Sanskrit , translated by John Brough ©1977:

The pleasant city and its mighty king,
The tributary princess at his side,
The learned men that were the kingdom's pride,
The minstrels with a ready song to sing,
The gracious ladies of the court, the ring
Of haughty nobles, arrogant of birth,
Are conquored by the Lord of all the earth,
Time, who makes memories of everything.

~Bhartŗhari

Gollum's similar riddle to Bilbo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, ©1937:

This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down.

Special

If you could travel back in time and kill Hitler as an infant, would you?

I've been asked that question before, and my answer is always "It wouldn't matter."

The question presupposes that Hitler was a remarkable, irreplaceable human being, and I don't think that's accurate. I think he was an idiot.

And in an alternate time-line, where infant Adolf is murdered in his crib, I believe the same societal forces that forced that idiot to the front would just force some other idiot to the front.

He wasn't that special.

The worst part of every celebrity death is the inevitable Condolence Tweets.

Stop,Look,Listen...

"If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you."  ~ Leo Tolstoy

Couplets

"Candy is dandy / but liquor is quicker." ~Ogden Nash
                                                          •
"Men seldom make passes / at girls who wear glasses." ~Dorothy Parker

Both of those goofy little rhyming couplets surprised me by having a credited source; the Ogden Nash quote in particular, because I've seen it scrawled on so many bathroom stalls.

Sicilian Landscape

Paul Klee, Sicilische Landschaft (1924)

Weak?

From Poems From the Sanskrit , translated by John Brough ©1977:

No, but look here now, this is just absurd,
The way our famous poets talk of girls
As weak and winsome. Weak? Is this a word
To use of those who, with a shake of curls
And with the triumph of a modest glance,
Can lead the very gods a merry dance?

~Bhartŗhari

Hearing

My father's acute hearing loss has changed the way we communicate.

We've lost subtlety. I can't whisper to him, "Be sure to compliment Mona on her new haircut," because he won't hear it. If I shout it loud enough for him to hear, then of course she'll hear, too.

It's surprising how many asides we have in a day, little comments and intimacies that are meant for just two, not the entire room.

I used to be able to make my Dad laugh, but it's really hard to shout a joke or a funny observation.  It loses something.  Sometimes it comes across as witty, but that's not the same as funny.  Usually it just sounds odd.

He would benefit from a hearing aid, but won't even consider it because "Hearing aids are for old people." He's 88. I suppose "old" is forever "five years older than me."

Worse, he has become very good at giving the impression that he's heard. Typically what gives him away is inappropriate laughter at something that wasn't intended as a joke.

I try to use visual cues. I asked him if he wanted something to drink, and he said "No." I waited a minute, then held up a pitcher of cherry Kool-Aid and asked again. This time the answer was "Yes."

I can't change the reception, so I have to change the transmission.

I'm learning.

Pretty Pictures on the Prison Walls

When I was younger, I would never have understood the two quotes below by Buddhist monk Tenzin Palmo. The idea of life as anything other than ever-expanding freedom would have been completely alien to me.

But now I get it.

 

Most people feel cozy enough in samsara. They do not really have the genuine aspiration to go beyond samsara; they just want samsara to be a little bit better. It is quite interesting that “samsara” became the name of a perfume. And it is like that. It seduces us into thinking that it is okay: samsara is not so bad; it smells nice! The underlying motivation to go beyond samsara is very rare, even for people who go to Dharma centers. There are many people who learn to meditate and so forth, but with the underlying motive that they hope to make themselves feel better. And if it ends up making them feel worse, instead of realizing that this may be a good sign, they think there is something wrong with Dharma. We are always looking to make ourselves comfortable in the prison house. We might think that if we get the cell wall painted a pretty shade of pale green, and put in a few pictures, it won’t be a prison any more.

---

Everything which we see and everyone we relate to, we relate to from this tight box of our very limited judgements, prejudices, ideas, conceptions. It’s like we’re in a very small prison cell, dungeon really. And so we begin to start a new kind of direction in our lives … but the important thing is not to end up going from one prison cell into another prison cell. Even if the new prison cell has nice decoration on the wall and burns incense. It’s still a prison cell. And always the question is how to go beyond the prison, how to get out, how to be liberated.

Crazy

Mona and I saw Crazy Rich Asians in the theater last week. The movie didn't appeal to me-- there were too many people doing too many things, too many wheels inside of wheels-- but there was one thing in particular that bothered me.

Although they were very careful to avoid any hint of stereotypical Asian behavior, they had no problem throwing a stereotypical homosexual into the mix. "I'm the rainbow sheep of the family!" he announces, then giggles at the absurdity of his own existence.

I went to a very small school, with a class of around 35, and since graduation at least five classmates have come out. There was only one I suspected, and not a single one of them conforms to the flamboyant stereotype so prevalent in television and movies.

I really think it's time for Hollywood to take a step back. If it's wrong to have a buck-toothed Asian who can't pronounce his r's, it's equally wrong to have a scarf-wearing homosexual lisping and prancing his way through the scenery.

fling!

Bob the Angry Flower by Stephen Notley is on the web HERE.

(I like the way the toast pops out in the final panel.)

3

Three songs about sunglasses:

1.  "Cheap Sunglasses" by ZZ Top (YouTube)(Lyrics)


2.  "Sunglasses at Night" by Corey Hart (YouTube)(Lyrics)


3. "The Future's So Bright (I've Gotta Wear Shades)" by Timbuk 3 (YouTube)(Lyrics)

Nothing Unchanging

"If our body really belonged to us, it would obey our commands. If we say, 'Don’t get old,' or 'I forbid you to get sick' does it obey us?  No!  It takes no notice.  We only rent this 'house,' not own it.  If we think it does belong to us, we will suffer when we have to leave it.  But in reality, there is no such thing as a permanent self, nothing unchanging or solid that we can hold on to."  ~Ajahn Chah (source)

Not so vile as

"Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting." Dauphin, in William Shakespeare's The Life of King Henry the Fifth, Act 2 Scene 3