The Dude Abides

A frivolous poem from my journal -

pro-gress
e-gress
di-gress
un-gress

 Maybe ungress is "not a word," meaning only that no one has written it down until now, but maybe it should be.  Sounds Zen to me -
ungress: to not go forward.  Just to stand there.

frivolous: not serious in content, attitude, or behavior

serious: concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities.  Work is . . . what is work? you reap something from it.

progress: movement as toward a goal, advancement.  gress is from ancient languages - to advance, to go, to walk. (The opposite of progress is Congress.)

If you must walk purposefully, at least digress - turn aside, stray, wander.A form of play.

So many people work so hard to get somewhere.  But somewhere doesn't exist. When you get there, there's no there there.  What is somewhere?  A better place, materially, one that feels secure.  A time when you can ah-ha be frivolous, have fun.

If you must do serious things, do them in ruffles. Do them with a clown nose on.  Like Bernie Glassman, above on the right.  That's him doing dokusan (private spiritual interview) with Jeff Bridges, famous for The Big Lebowski, an unserious movie in which a spirit of play has the last word. (The title of this post.)  Glassman has accomplished big, serious things, a mandala of services for the homeless, retreats at Auschwitz.  You can read an interview with him here on Tricycle, I hope.  (Like everyone else, Tricycle is starting to limit content to those who pay for it - gasp. I find being a subscriber worth it.)

If you must work, play at it. Oh, don't make me get started on What is play? It is anything done with a play-full attitude.  Which is an attitude of getting nowhere, of exploring - how high can a sand castle go?
Where does this trail go?  What would I do if I don't get a damn thing done today?