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Excerpts from The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan W. Watts

… only doubtful truths need defense.

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The common error of ordinary religious practice is to mistake the symbol for the reality, to look at the finger pointing the way and then to suck it for comfort rather than follow it. Religious ideas are like words — of little use, and often misleading, unless you know the concrete realities to which they refer. The word “water” is a useful means of communication amongst those who know water. The same is true of the word and the idea called “God.”

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You cannot understand life and its mysteries as long as you try to grasp it. Indeed, you cannot grasp it, just as you cannot walk off with a river in a bucket. If you try to capture running water in a bucket, it is clear that you do not understand it and that you will always be disappointed, for in the bucket the water does not run. To “have” running water you must let go of it and let it run. The same is true of life and of God.

“What we should do is not future ourselves so much. We should now ourselves more. “Now thyself” is more important than “Know thyself.” Reason is what tells us to ignore the present and live in the future. So all we do is make plans. We think that somewhere there are going to be green pastures. It’s crazy. Heaven is nothing but a grand, monumental insistence of the future. Listen, now is good. Now is wonderful.”
~ Mel Brooks

Speaking of people who make plans to the detriment of their souls, I was watching an episode of ABC’s Wife Swap last night (I know, it’s trash TV, but I was in the mood to be brainless) and one of the families on there (the Oeth family) was frighteningly structured and planned. At the ages of 6 and 8, the kids were already stressing about getting into college, and ivy league universities at that, since both of their parents were Harvard graduates. I’m all for going to college if that’s what an individual wants to do, but not every human being on the planet is cut out for post-secondary education. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just deluding themselves and creating needless heartburn for themselves.

Stupid Human Tricks

So I was walking back to the office yesterday along the 16th Street Mall and something caught my eye. A woman, her two daughters, and a baby in a stroller were trying to enter a building that has one of those revolving doors. The two older daughters went into the revolving door first and mom with the stroller tried to follow. Mom quickly found out she and the stroller wouldn’t all fit in one of the revolving quadrants, and she was essentially pushed out of the door back onto the street. But here’s the amusing part. Baby in the stroller is now alone in one of the revolving quadrants with the siblings inside the building and the mother outside of the building. This is the point at which I had to look away and keep on walking; I couldn’t bear to watch the scene any more lest I get involved somehow. The most amusing part is that there were two regular hinged doors on either side of the revolving door for handicapped access and entry for things like strollers. Sometimes you just have to wonder.

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
~ Benjamin Franklin

Speaking of time, my children seem to be oblivious to the concept of “sleeping time” and “waking time”. Grr.

Yes potpourri – like the category on Jeopardy for “this contains random shit”.

So I have been typing in here a quote a day lifted from my “Page-A-Day Zen Calendar”, but I have come to the realization that most of those quotes suck ass. I have a collection of quotes myself that I may begin posting, and if the zen-page-a-day ever does come up with something worthwhile, I'll post it in here, but for all you suck-ass zen fans, you'll just have to search elsewhere for your suck-ass quote of the day. From what I've seen thus far, there's more zen in my left pinky than there is in that calendar.

There have been some recent items in the course of human events that have really made me question the worth of the human species as a whole. First, March 10, 2005: A suicide bomber blows himself up at a Shiite mosque during a funeral in the city of Mosul, killing at least 47 people and wounding more than 100. Second, March 11, 2005: Brian Nichols, 33, shot and killed a judge, a deputy sheriff, a court reporter and later a federal agent after being escorted into a court room for retrial on a rape charge.

What kind of person finds it acceptable to kill other people in the name of political conflict at a funeral? If there is a god, and that god meets out punishment for evil deeds, that suicide bomber is certain to be suffering now. A more likely scenario, however, is that his troubled soul will be reborn into some tribulated life form and will settle out his karma there. Asshole.

And about asshole number two, Brian Nichols: I am not a proponent of the death penalty. I think it has little (if any) deterrence factor, and it's economically more burdensome on the state than locking up a human being for the remainder of its natural life without the possibility of parole. I was so hoping Brian Nichols would have done something provocative enough to allow the apprehending police to deal out some street justice and even out the karmic scale just a little, but alas, he's too chicken shit to have done anything but surrender peacefully. The judge he killed, was the first law partner of a judge who is a close friend of my parents who also married Heather and me. Now, as Craig mentioned in the IRC the other night, Brian Nichols is a dead man walking who will probably take glee in the fact that his capital criminal defense will utilize untold millions of taxpayer dollars before his rightful end comes to pass. Asshole.

Last Friday I opened an account on My Space. I doubt I'll use it for anything, but the link is there for anyone interested.