Now we turn to the subject of expectations. The expectations we have of others, and those we have of ourselves.
There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.
“Let us see,” the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“Let us see,” replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy for what they called his “misfortune.”
“Let us see,” answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.
“Let us see,” said the farmer.
And so life went on.
The sound of the train in the distance is the sound of a true leader coming home. The word Cuomo just makes us happy now. It give us comfort to know there is someone sane in charge somewhere. We are down to a level where it’s pure personal behavior that determines our faith, and perhaps that all we have, when we don’t have a handshake.
She gave him a prison haircut, there is a slight institutionalize feeling to it. She cut his hair like Delilah cut Samson’s, pure passive-aggressive punishment for giving her the coronavirus while in quarantine.
It is that clear:
Cause and Effect —
We are in control of the spread of the virus.
I don’t want a “Whoops“ situation where we change our minds awkwardly after the fact.
It is liberating. Finally our destiny is in our hands. We are in control of our destiny.
(We who love liberation should love that.)
If you don’t have your health nothing else matters, he says, and it is sadly true. Perhaps that is what got America into this problem to begin with — not enough health, too much matter.
All the same, let’s respect all we have done. I’m old enough to have seen the merry-go-round go around and I still don’t understand why they insist on shouting after him as he leaves the room.
All hands on deck.
It’s not over for any of us until it’s over for all of us.
(Ain’t that the truth)
Weeping may endure through the long night but the joy comes with the morning — and everyone loves a preacher who says inspirational things, especially the preacher.
Don’t be afraid of negative consequences— otherwise you’ll be paralyzed. Be prepared to move and adapt.
Hollywood is already planning a movie, Robert De Niro is going to play Governor Cuomo; or, let’s see, perhaps we’ll take it the other way around.
Do you know what a fake tough guy is?
A fake tough guy is one that doesn’t know how to love.
To hear a government official speak about Love — how rare is that?
It’s probably the thing we need most of all — we need love. You gotta be tough to talk about love — to say you need it. Love is the one thing that can make everything better, the one thing we really need, and we’re all afraid to talk about it.
Today is Day 71, but it is really Mother’s Day, and our mothers are the personification of love, pure love, like the Buddha said, Metta, pure unconditional affirmation, just that total love of a mother streamed for all to see on CBS.
Speak (and attend to) the Present. Period.
For some reason journalists have a tendency to ask Shoulda Woulda Coulda questions, and the Governor bypasses many of those questions, if not most, as he should. Because hindsight is both blind and 20/20, the self-transcending paradox.
All these self-realizing star seeds, just trying to stay alive, and meanwhile realizing the true lesson of abundance is to learn to play with what you already have. My value increases when I own every piece of me, commit to my desire, commit to the value I have found in myself. Real intimacy. Go all the way and support the inner desires. Train yourself to understand that you are the source of your own pleasure. You are most beautiful when you are looking like yourself. That is when we can all see your intrinsic value, and this is when we speak of money not as spending, but investing, with this sense of power that is very soft, and very full.
Like a glass half full and filling.
Like being God in Man, or Jesus in Woman, or Both/And.
In my own life, she said, almost a hundred years of it (and she wasn’t lying), I think all the time about things that matter, fundamentals. Got to keep my eye on the ball, especially at my age.
Sometimes I listen to the pope; I find him inspiring.
“Thus the superior man receives people by virtue of emptiness.”
Maybe we will share a martini on the 31st at her monthly martini party, now streamed live via Zoom.
Like this we stumble through the friendly cheek kiss which is really only awkward for those people who fail to kiss themselves in the mirror on a regular basis. All the same we forgive you. Offer you a cup of tea. The spine of the day is tea over here, and you have to wait for it. Tea doesn’t go on your time. It requires patience. He is the 9th child of an Irish country policeman. Tea got them through two wars. It speaks like something that is fresh and alive, blooming on your tongue.
More deaths than Vietnam Iraq and Afghan wars combined thus far.
I smell like a tree in blossom, keep smelling these trees in blossom, do you know what that smells like?
(In the park that day there was bright sun, and wind, the type of day where you get sunburned goosebumps, and keep taking layers on and off. There were not so many people in our little corner of the world, and it was easier to feel our shared dynamic. A man playing football with his son who caught my eye. Just seemed so undeniably normal. Healthy. Not inflicted with the virus of fear.)
Slowly the playgrounds begin to fill, and people begin to laugh again. The streets are more crowded with cars then they were before, and as distant as we have all been in quarantine, I start to mourn in anticipation certain other proximities, like my daily briefings with the governor, and other things, like the lack of social obligation. People are already busy again, and that feels like its own sickness.
In the future, when there is no longer a crisis, will we still be in this together? Is that the lasting lesson?
Jane Fonda asks Lily Tomlin — Do you use emojis? I’m really into emojis.
No I spell it out.
Oh you’re such a purist.
(The answer is patriarchal culture)
Men think they lose the I in We. Female sense of self is porous.
Here we are loosening, while others Shelter In Place.
“When we say something that nourishes us and uplifts the people around us, we are feeding love and compassion. When we speak and act in a way that causes tension and anger, we are nourishing violence and suffering.” (Thích Nhất Hạnh)
Competence and confidence — you lost a partner, but also your sense of self. In a symptomatic model of affairs, there was a cause that create this, a deficiency. In a karmic model, this is an opportunity.
(Every single time I wasn’t talking to someone, I was consuming content.)
All of us existing in Filter Bubbles, orbiting parenthetically, wasting human potential, only seeing one side of reality and even there with a plane and banal objective to simply “increase watch time,” of whatever it is that you happen upon. Don’t turn it off, or you might break the spell.
The only ones who judge me, for getting over grief, are those who have not yet felt enough to know what that means. Who have not yet tasted these things that matter in some other, alternative economy that has nothing to do with social media and convenience culture.
You bring the Lighting; I bring the Thunder.
All these things I did with you in mind. Then I realized you and I were both in my mind, and it started to rain on top of us. This is our essential life that matters, or not, and I watch it run down the drain.