Couple of People, Couple of Dogs

Two Birds Drink . . .

I left a very special place in Austin today and saw these two birds drinking from a bubbling fountain. I looked in the water and saw one face shine.

No Such Things as Skeletons

Sometimes when I don't know what to do I turn on the TV. Within seconds someone says something that creates an image in my mind. Here's one of them.

Getting and Spending

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we know of nature that is ours. (William Wordsworth)

Give Me Your Wallet Now!

I received an email today from a visitor to NYC. She wrote that the people are mean and the sun is not shining. I told her to say, "Excuse me sir . . . ."

Blocked Bad

She rubbed his shoulders to release his writer's block.

Neither Funny Nor Interesting

Bug Box

Be kind to bugs. Our life depends on them.

Suffering Begins at Birth

See: http://tinyurl.com/297p6u
for more explanation.

Ye Ol' Barber Shop

I love listening to the conversations
at the barber shop. I should pay extra
for that.
The older barber is a great listener.
Each customer is his favorite,
and he seems sincerely interested
in what they are going to do for Easter.

The other barber is off fishing,
or golfing, no matter who is
sitting in his chair. Maybe next
time I'll draw him.

Descartes

So the Buddhist said Descartes
had it backwards,
"I am therefore I think."
And another said I was wrong
saying "I am not me" because
asserting "I" is really
saying "I am me."

So I asked what do I say,
without much hope that
I'd figure it out by midnight.

"There is me," he said.
I thought of the little prince,
looking at himself, standing on the Earth,
and at the rest of everything,
all twirling around and around
and around.

Non-Thinking Again

I asked the abbot about
non-thinking yesterday
and found that it was a
desired state, where
we experience
rather than conceptualize.

I then asked if non-self
was related to non-thinking
and he said no. But the
more he talked, the more
I realized that "self"
was the illusion of our
though rather than what
we experience.

I am "me" is only true
because I create
that as myself.
That identification
sometimes functions
as a shield to protect
me from getting
to really know how I feel
as I interact with our world.

Around and Around Again

He was driving in circles,
around and around,
slowly,
day by day,
year by year,
as the landscape changed
by the light and seasons
and as the world spun and rotated
around its mother Sun.

He was getting somewhere,
then nowhere, not realizing
that the trip was only back
from whence he had come—
over and over again.

His mind was not on the road
but rather on the gluttonous
breakfast he had, and how
it refused to find its way
past the middle of his stomach.

As his car jumped over a deep pothole
he was jarred into consciousness
and wondered if the surroundings
were slightly familiar
or just a figment of his imagination.

And then his stomach growled once more
as he left the road once again
to travel
in his mind, around and around,
again.

Out 2 Lunch?

A Three-legged Pig For One Low Price

Here's an article on human trafficking: http://tinyurl.com/2w8kxh and on pig genocide: http://tinyurl.com/2paoe4

Crooked Habitat

Saved by the Bell

Thanks for the responses. I'm wondering who is finding multiple meanings. What are they? Remember to click on "comments" and then choose "anonymous."

Some hints: Is it contradictory for a Christian to be saved by the bell? Do Buddhists start and stop their meditation with the ringing of a bell? What really saves us? What is there to save? (Just a few items to make me scratch my head.)

Thanks,

Kim

Eat Your Heart Out Dad

Please let me know how you read this cartoon. You can click on "comments" below, and then on "anonymous." Thanks!

Like Magic?

So Let's Do Simple

I'm taking a course in Voluntary Simplicity at the Missouri Zen Center, and this month's reading was about simple pleasures.

Is Noone hear?

Make ur-self @ home

U Beter Run II

My friend was irritated
that I didn't provide
a context for yesterday's
picturepoem.
(I've since altered the image a little and added a little of the context. Below is a further explanation, written in a moment of weakness.)

Flipping through channels
yesterday, a woman blurted
out "you better run."

I was struck with the
multitude of meanings,
from "I have a gun
on you and if you don't move
I'll shoot" to a "note
of encouragement"
to a couch potato.

Suppose, on the other hand,
that she was talking to
her clock, ready to toss
it in the trash.

Or maybe her statement
connected
to a feeling I have of needing
to explore a new world.

Then there are a variety
of possible readings
to my alterego's
response, "go where?"
I'm not sure that one place
is different than another.
If two places are ever changing
the "same" isn't possible, but
I'm not sure "different" is
possible either. Both places
are not only part of the same thing
(i.e. life) but are in the same
quandary of impermanence.

By the time I moved 3 or 4 times
I realized that most
places emulate one another,
and what I experience is because
of me, not the place. So "go
where?" really is saying,
"is it possible to go anywhere
but where you are?"

You asked . . .

U Beter Run

I heard "You better run" as I was flipping through channels. A number of different readings came to mind.

Snow

Two days ago,
ten inches of snow,
then my neighbor
cranked up his snowblower
and polished his driveway, clean.

I made a couple of snow shovel
widthed paths on the hill,
my drive being much longer
than his.

Yesterday the sun shined brightly,
reducing the snow to slush,
and giving us both a little
lesson on patience.

Large Party

I was in a room decorating
cakes with a pallet knife.
The cakes were more the
size of cup cakes.
The smallest piece was
just a fragment that had broken off
from a larger cup cake.
I knew that I had to decorate
all the pieces.

Then the dream switched
to my high school
where they had just installed
some elevators by the stairs.
I believe I dreamt about
those stairs before.
The doors to the two elevators
(one for up and one for down?)
would freely open but sometimes
there would be no cars
and one could drop to oblivion
if they stepped forward.
I was worried and thought
I ought to tell someone.
But it was as if they weren't
broken and no one was concerned.

Next I was at the rehearsal
for some large party.
They wanted to see
if they had enough seats
so they had everyone come to sit down.
There were mostly round tables,
then a table for two
that one person sat at,
and then a table for one where I sat.

We then had interviews and
I started to talk with someone.
Perhaps he was a Buddhist.
Before I was through talking to him,
he invited in the person
who sat at the table for two,
then talked briefly to the two
of us before telling me
that I had to leave.

Text in Squares

I was in school,
but there wasn't an actual time
for the class I was taking.
I had one of my daughter's teachers
and we were supposed to do
something with a page of text.

She didn't want us to use computer type,
but rather she wanted us to hand write it.

I said that I had a type face
that looked like hand writing.
I think I was lying but knew that I
could probably find such a type.
She said that would be fine.

Later I decided to hand write the text,
then scan it into my computer.
My colleague, who is a lithographer,
had written it in pencil and transfered
the pencil to a stone
(not easy to do).
He was very smug
about how good it looked.
I looked forward toward writing
the text into squares,
one letter to each square
like I used to write numbers
in the third grade where
I tried to see how far I could count.

The teacher was disappointed
that I had a class at 1 pm,
and that I had to leave.
There was another part of the dream
about food and a lunchroom
without any windows.

(Lord Jesi
Forgive
my si
ns please

Acme
Swtshrt)

Helping a Friend Take his Life Dream

How wonderful to wake
from a nightmare
to find that
what was so fearful
was only an illusion.

In my dream
I made up a story to hide
how we had helped a friend
take his own life.
I wished, afterward,
that I had not been involved
in the episode.

I came to realize
that making up a story
is much more difficult
than telling the truth.
And then I started becoming
fuzzy about what was my role
in this escapade.

The individual who was
ultimately responsible for
the matter was not
punished.

Still, upon waking,
I was relieved
that it just a dream.

Two Faces

Returning from Nirvana

It was a long ride from
peace & quiet. It was bumper
to bumper going the other
direction.