Saturday, March 13, 2010

Random Thoughts From A Himalayan Cave


Door knocker on the door of a Chicago Chinese restaurant

I've spent the last several days pretty much by myself, which is generally a good thing for me. I'm not a very social person, and would do very well in a Himalayan cave meditating for eight years. To that end, here are some random thoughts.

- I don't like zoos. While I understand the purposes; money, research, and display. I think we as humans can do better.

- BRicks (Bike-Run, ick!) workouts are the bane of most triathletes, and I dislike them as much as anybody, but they're a necessary evil for me this year as my bike-to-run transitions suck.

- I need to go to the zendo tomorrow morning and sit… a lot.

- Matt Damon's Green Zone is a good movie, and I enjoyed it very much. I like Matt as an actor.

- Paramedics need to think clinically and have a good medical reason to "collar and board" a patient. Mechanism alone is not enough.

- Chain sushi restaurants tend to be not very authentic and not very good.

- I like Barnes & Noble's electronic book reader, the Nook very much. I'm an Amazon Kindle owner, but am considering trading up.

- I don't understand why funeral processions have the right of way and are allowed to inconvenience hundreds of people along the route. Certainly this wasn't the deceased's last wish? I want to pass the deceased in my car, not drive over him.

- I need to go fly fishing but the Chattahoochee River is too swollen with all of the recent rains. I'm not a good enough fly fisherman to lure a trout out of a fast-flowing, murky river.

- I need to call my parents.

1 comment:

Buddhist_philosopher said...

From a fellow wannabe hermit: there is a certain dignity for those still living when a funeral precession is given the right of way. Having buried both of my paternal grandparents in the last 15 months, I appreciate this tradition. I don't think they cared much, but for our family and friends to arrive together at the cemetery is a small blessing on an important day. I could only imagine if we had to wait -in rain/snow- for those caught up in traffic before the final rituals began.

Perhaps also for the people seeing us this was a needed reminder of the finiteness of life, a reminder to hug your loved ones and tell them how you feel?