Remember

You experience life moment by moment; these moments add up to your life.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Speak Up or Give That Look


I can be pretty cynical, but sometimes there is something that gets to me that is little, that is corny. One is this commercial on television where a man is in a restaurant being served by an immigrant who doesn't speak English - or not well - anyway. The man is an obnoxious boor and says rude things about immigrants and ends with, "You know what I mean?"
A clean-cut young All-American Iowa corn fields and middle America man looks at him, and says very respectfully, yet firmly, "No, Sir, I don't."
I love that! It is the Hollywood form of modeling - showing people how to behave when confronted with wrong-minded rudeness, especially when it is biased in nature. I consider it a great leap toward the "kinder, gentler place" America wants to be (or I hope it wants to be).
Not everyone can carry off the respectful tone in such a noncombative manner as the young man in the ad, so I prevail upon everyone to practice "the look." You know what "the look" is because you got it a million times when you started to do something wrong when company was present and your mother was too. It's a warning of dire things to come...if.
Or there's the "cold shoulder" look. That's the one where you look at the person and raise your chin up and then look away, never to look again because that bad person no longer exists on your planet.
It's the easiest way to make unacceptable behavior unpopular without drawing undue attention to yourself.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

How Do You Live?

Don't associate with lowly qualities.
Don't consort with heedlessness.
Don't associate with wrong views.
Don't busy yourself with the world.

Get up! Don't be heedless.
Live the Dhamma well.*
One who lives the Dhamma
sleeps with ease
in this world & the next.
*It's an oversimplification to say "Truth" for Dharma, but it would work here for the understanding of those unfamiliar with Buddhist thought.
-Dhammapada, 13, translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.