My Two Cents

Back before our world changed, when I was working on a project for UC, once a week or so I’d stop by a used bookstore in Old Oakland, Friends of the Oakland Public Library. About half of the time I would forget to take my reading glasses.

One day I saw a hardback copy of The Sacred and Profane and wondered what had happened to the paperback version by Mircea Eliade that I used to own. I bought the book. On a bookshelf at home, I squeezed it in between The Golden Bough by Joseph Frazier and Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. I didn’t look at it for months. When I did, there was a surprise.

The book was written by Iris Murdoch and I had been so convinced it was by Mircea Eliade that I hadn’t noticed after the word Profane, there were two more words, “love machine.” I laughed. I pondered the title and decided it must be a reference to one or more human beings. We are love machines, no?

She stole the title of one of Titian’s paintings and plastered the word “machine” at the end. It must be good as it won the Whitbread novel award. I’ll crack it open.

We decided to go to Hawaii for my birthday next February, Some friends will be staying not far from Kona for a few months so we thought we’d look nearby for a rental for a week or two so we could meet up with them for dinner or a game of golf.

We scanned VRBO and did not find any one bedroom condos for rent – minimum 2BR 2BA. One looked fantastic so we booked that one. Next the flights – there were a lot of options. We only considered direct flights, preferably from Oakland, but didn’t book one. How long did we want to stay? We could decide in a day or two as we still had the option to extend our lodging booking.

We slept on it.

The next day, today, we decided to postpone the trip indefinitely. We got to thinking about the strangers in the airports and on the planes. The strangers at the beach and the resort. Did we want to trust them? No.

If we never discussed a trip to Hawaii, this about-face wouldn’t have happened. But it did and now I’m feeling sad. In the past, I just felt sad until I didn’t feel sad. Not any more. Now I feel obligated to take action.

A few weeks ago, in my yoga class, the teacher shared a quip? an insight? as he is prone to do. He said he had been listening to a dharma talk by Jack Kornfield who said that a lesson for 5 year olds goes like this. Sometimes you feel sad. You feel sad because you didn’t get what you wanted or you got what you did not want. Instead of feeling sad, try an act of kindness for your friends, family, animals or insects. Then see how you feel. Or he said something like that. Maybe Jack told the tale in reference to one koan or another.

So my emotional state is that in the lesson for a 5 year old. I will try to come up with an act of kindness. It’s very unlikely it will relate to an insect, especially a mosquito or a knat. I am not that evolved. Maybe it will be extra kindness for Blue, our cat. Family? Maybe. A person? Maybe.

Aloha.