Dad's Indiscretion

Today's miniature is best read in context. Buy the book and read it from the beginning. Once you get to page 190, you'll be caught up with this post.

I have not had any encounters in my life that could have lead to "... children and their innumerable children and their innumerable children and innumerable, innumerable cousins ..." So far I've escaped fatherhood. This is an odd source of pride for me.


For the wood design enthusiast. Elbert Hubbard was the mover behind Roycroft. His implementation of the Arts and Craft ethos lives on today. There is a lot to be learned here including an hour long video produced by PBS.

The Patriot



Today I learned a new word, jingoistic. Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy".


Robert Aitken is quite the story teller. 


My father was proud of his prowess at scratch off lottery tickets. Winning a few dollars made his day in a way that I never could understand. From time to time he  would ask me to send him scratch off lottery tickets from Idaho because we have different games. He told me once that those who play the Powerball type lotteries were fools easily separated from their money. He hoped to win big by scratching.


He never did.

Mother's Inability

Robert Aitken's mother was a talented and engaged woman who raised two sons. She was troubled in her relationship with her mother.  Aitken confesses, "This karma affected her marriage, and ultimately me, I'm sure, though I lack the insight to say just how."

"I lack the insight to say just how." Thank you roshi for this teaching. The rains don't come and the wind blows hard. I eat my dinner alone. Knowing or not knowing is not the trouble. Want one or the other and the road to hell is paved with questions. 


Sycamore spoons, roughed out and ready for finishing.
carving by Will Simpson
From Spoonery



Listen to an NHPR 2004 recorded interview with ... "Dan Dustin is a wood artisan and spoon maker from Contoocook, New Hampshire. He's been using his own unique method of making wooden spoons for 30 years. He begins by going into the woods, and "finding" the spoons within the branches of trees. He says the trees make the spoons, he just discovers them. His spoons cost as much as $100."

Impressing Mom and Dad

"They were of the earth, earthy, and were not easily impressed."

With this we see our own limits of expression. What sweeps away our grounding, points out to us where we are moored? Comfortable in a skin of nature, of art, of literature, of technology. What brings us to this 'impressed'? The lightness of 'impressed' sings in the heart of this little boy.




Lunch time walkabout, Honey Bees working the plum blossoms, I left my smile there for you to find.


Before awakening totality does with you what it wants. After awakening totality does with you what it wants, only you don't think that's not the case.

tittle - the dot on top of the "i" and "j" typological jargon.

Jack, the more I practice the more I realize just how little I know about Zen. I'm writing this right after our book discussion and I'm finding talking about Zen ain't too helpful. Sometimes I feel like a lot of what passes for Zen is nothing but commentary. Like a movie critic, critiquing life. Counter productive yet the social norm. Acceptably missing the point! Popular commentators on Zen seem to be grubbing around looking for something broken that when fixed will bring salvation. This appeals to a Western sense. Yet still misses by a mile. I must confess that I don't know a thing about Zen. I don't know why I practice. I can't remember even why I came to the practice. Maybe it is transient, but I find my desire to hold ideas in my mind weakening even more. I have no idea about Zen and am comforted by that. Weird confession. The practice be so nebulous. To say it is "everything" or "your practice is your practice" is a cop out. I sit. That is about all I can say for sure. Well maybe I can't say there is any "I", so just --- sit. There. -- Your turn. Will