With a Little Help From My Friends

Here he is, the almost-indomitable Maru, given a box with compartments that are just too small for a well-built cat.  Even he needs consolation from his mom.  And as you'll see, she simplifies the problem for him - a good Mom eases your way in life - and there is a happy ending. 

While I wrote the above I was enjoying this music - seems so simple and bouncy now, but it didn't then.  And the boys look so innocent in a nice photo montage from the days when we were all way younger and  John was still alive.  A lot of optimism was still alive, and still is, you just have to look in the right places.

I hope you get to take a sabbath, a break from all your striving, today, and enjoy it.  If you have to work, don't work too hard.

Grandma for President

[image - completely unrelated ad starring a cat that struck me funny. I can't find any amusing campaign humor.]

So considering this long, tiresome election here in America, I fell to daydreaming about the ideal candidate. Obviously, that would be someone who does not want to be President, because it's a job no sane person would want.  Who else but me, then?  So imagine me, for a moment, with grayer hair in a sort of bun, and wearing a nice old-fashioned dress with a lace collar (and tennis shoes, of course) on a platform, speaking to a sea of cheering people.

Friends [I begin] today we find ourselves in a great big mess.  Yet, I come to you with a light heart.  For I know that at this very moment, this mess is working itself out.  It is working itself out in China and India and Russia, in Africa, all over the world.  In each and every nation, change is taking place. And there are serious people enduring long, delicate  meetings in the effort to put aside national pride and work together as one people.  For we are all one, we cannot escape our deep interconnection.  We share the waters and the sky and the air.

[An uncomfortable hush has fallen over the crowd. Is this really a campaign speech?]

So I ask of you today [I continue] to put aside not only your pride, but your hatred, put aside all your  hatreds.  To put aside your blaming and instead think deeply about your own actions, and how you help create the world we share.

[scattered boos, sounds of hushing.  You could hear a pin drop; that would be sharp.]

Ask yourself [I say], what can I do to help my neighbors?  What can I share?  How can I make this a better world with food and shelter and a decent life for every single human being, with justice for all, no distinctions? 

[murmurs in the crowd of "UnAmerican!" are shushed.  One muscular man turns and starts weaving toward the exit, shaking his head.]

And I herebye vow [I continue, since I still have the mic, which is very important in politics] that I will not be rude or unkind on the world stage. That I will endeavor to lead this nation step by step in a search for international peace and cooperation.  That all serious, important meetings will have breaks for cookies, and our children and grandchildren and our beloved pets will play at our feet to remind us what this is all about.

[stunned silence. Camera goes in on a woman with a look of amazed hope. Flashbulbs pop.  No, wait, wrong generation.  Many phones are held aloft, that's right, sending this out by video to the whole world. Cut to cheering crowds in Tianamen Square. A Chinese soldier is shown wiping a tear away.]

And so I say to you, in conclusion, Vote for me.  Because a vote for Grandma is a vote for Grandmother's Heart!

Oh my, the crowd goes wild!  Because I'm writing this story.
Seriously now.......it's not a bad agenda.

Does Connection Matter?

Grailville 2011, through a screen

from a Tricycle interview with Gil Fronsdal - 

..........the American Vipassana movement emphasizes interconnectedness when teaching anatta, or “not-self.” This is emphasized so much that a person might get the idea that realizing interconnectedness is the ultimate goal of Buddhism. It’s not; this is a very American emphasis. I think interconnectedness is inspiring to us as an antidote to American individualism and the pain of alienation it can cause. 

This interests me from a couple of points of view. One, I am a devoted member of a Unitarian Universalist church, which emphasizes interconnection as one of its seven core principles.  Two, I have seen this emphasis on aspiring to deeply realize our connectedness in American Zen, and a mystic's life is not for me.  I think it's important to emphasize the entire 8-Fold Path, which makes clear that our behavior is important.  If you set out to follow the precepts there, it will keep you busy.

On the other hand, as the scapegoat in an alcoholic family I grew up without a sense of having a family or connection, except insofar as I could connect with some poets through their poetry - sobering even to remember that intense loneliness.  So for me, personally, realizing my connectedness to what family I have, my friends, my church, has been healing; it's what kept me alive during my years of profound clinical depression. Therefore I stopped writing just now and called Nancy, a dear friend from years of meditating together.  And now, to connect with Tom over breakfast.
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Oh man, such a long long too-much-to-do list today.  This is the result of addressing it sporadically, and a lot of change going on in our lives.  And sporadic is my buddhanature.  Meanwhile in back of mind, what is more important?  going to Zen tonight, see special friends there, or doing collage assn. while perhaps listening to a dharma talk?  Hmmmm........What is the most important thing?  I used to think it was my private spiritual practice, as in meditating.  Now it expands out to it being important to be there, sitting with the group, making the group.  The collage group tomorrow morning is a sort of practice, too, and certainly connection with other women in my age group.  But they really don't care if I do the assn, do they?  They shouldn't.......But my health and well-being is surely the most important thing. 

Breathe in, exhale. Cool down.  Abandon idea of going out in the noonday sun for major grocery shopping.  Decide to go to Zen tonight.  A bunch of Zenners meditating is about as cool as you can get. And staying cool physically and mentally is becoming a priority as summer barrels at us here, going up to 95 degrees today.  Already, even the little cat is irritable.

Good Samaritans

The sun is out! It's been raining, and some of our peonies are face down on the ground. They don't mind. You dunk them in water anyway if you cut them, because they exist symbiotically with ants, and you don't want to bring ants into the house. Here are words from a peony lover:

Do not try to get rid of the ants on your peonies. This is a natural and temporary activity. It is believed that peonies produce small amounts of nectar and other ant attractants to encourage ants to help in opening the dense double flower buds found in many peonies. The ants may be found covering certain varieties and avoiding others, this is totally normal.

Think of it - selective ants. Who knows what else they know? If let loose in a museum, what paintings would they favor, and how many scientific explanations would be proposed?

I am rambling.

Took a walk outside and didn't find a peony I wanted to photograph. They are so photographed, it seems impossible not to be cliched. Instead, I shot green seedpods hanging from a redbud branch. Redbud is a characteristic woodland tree around here, and in much of the eastern US where there is enough moisture and it doesn't get too cold. You can see how prolifically it seeds.
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I was going to blog today beginning like this: What is Zen about an organ donation? Instead I found the peonies + ants leading me to articles about mutualistic relationships, which are many. Is organ donation one of those? No. Laura can feel the warmth of her own generosity, but I can't give her anything near the value of a kidney to me - ten or twenty more years, years of being able to write and watch my grandson grow up. She will have the very unusual benefit of knowing she did something difficult - it can't be entirely risk-free - and gave life. A feeling much greater, I imagine, than I used to feel when I gave blood, back when I was able. That was a soft, gentle pride.

But this is more, it's about doing for someone in need what you would do for your own sister or daughter. I am seeing Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan differently these days. I think I remember that the Samaritan was a man from out of town who stopped to help someone he did not know - a stranger. We all give (if sometimes reluctantly) to our family, and our neighborhood. Religion applauds the person who can step outside that charmed circle and see the whole world as intimately their own.