The Troof Will Set You Free

[elfs]

This afternoon, for lunch, I went into downtown from my office to run some errands. I wanted to pick up Best Buddhist Writing, 2007, since it's just come out, although I have to say that when I started thumbing through it I was less than impressed. I'm not happy with the way Mahayana is seeping back into the American nominally non-theistic practice; Theravada's got a much harder row to hoe, but it's core principle of your being responsible for your own journey is much more interesting to me. The whole Bodhisattva thing is, well, it smacks too much of gods and angels for my taste. You can't find that stuff in the words of Siddhartha, the Buddha. When asked if there were gods or angels who made the world, Buddha said, "When your house is on fire, you don't care who made it or where they are. Get out of the house." Don't worry about the gods, Buddha taught. Deal with your own life first. (Confucious said more or less the same thing: "When the nation is in disarray is not a time to worry about the gods." I've always had a soft spot for Confucious, but he wasn't giving a religion; he was teaching law.)

I didn't buy the book after all. Instead, I went over to The Dragon's Toybox and picked out a card game for Kouryou-chan called Quiddler, which the woman behind the counter recommended as a gentler introduction to word games than Boggle, a game that Kouryou-chan finds frustrating. I bought a lox sandwich at the bagel store next door, which makes them with red onion and capers and just the right amount of cream cheese.

Walking back, I passed through Westlake center. I'd forgotten what day it was. There was a guy on the cement dais on the edge of the big outdoor triangle that takes up half the city block, strumming his guitar. He was surrounded by Truthers holding street signs and yelling out random things, handing out stickers and pamphlets. Two held up a big banner proclaiming, "The WTC was Demolished!" I studiously ignored all of them.

While I was walking around, I saw a traffic cop on a three-wheeled contraption vaguely like a knockoff Segway. I said to her, "They couldn't even buy you a real Segway?"

"I can't stand those things," she said. "They hurt, you know that? You spend all day on one of those things, balancing back and forth, and it really starts to hurt in your calves and your feet. This thing is a lot better."

I did not know that. I thanked her for the knowledge.

I was deeply saddened to learn that both McCormick Bookstore and Blue Canary Stationery have gone out of business. Bleah! Now where will I buy my soft-backed Moleskines no-lined notebooks?

On the way back to the office, I swear, the bus driver was, um, happy. Very cheerful; obviously dreamed of being a train master some day. Said "Thank you" and "You're welcome" very loudly, and when we paused at a bus stop with a lot of people he even shouted, "All aboard!" I said "Thank you" to him as I got off and he said, "Take it easy, bro."

And I finished my Africa story on the bus, and immediately started into a new one:

Charles had made the mistake, two parties ago, of mouthing off the opinion within her earshot that Geena was one of those nekomimi furry freaks who pretended to be a Bastet. He had no doubt Lucien knew a lot of those. Geena, however, had turned out to be the real thing.

Oops.

Comments

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Now where will I buy my soft-backed Moleskines no-lined notebooks?

Same place I do: Amazon.

[loba.livejournal.com]

Now where will I buy my soft-backed Moleskines no-lined notebooks?

Or if you *have* to have them in hand... I found them over at Third Place Books. (I just got some there.) :-)