my unimportant opinion.

dear nancy; 
     i appreciated that after your long retreat you had that realization of our impermanence and unimportance. i also appreciate how important family must be in that regard. 
     honestly, i don't think much about family. it's lovely if not exactly how i view the situation. family must help one feel important or at least afford one a sense of belonging. i've never had much of a family life. so i remember my longer retreats as occassions when, with no sense of personal history, friends or family, i came to know myself simply as a living organism, and eventually not even that: like in deep sleep or samadhi.
     since my life has been a fundamentally solitary one i feel like i understand the importance of each living being, from a blade of grass to an elephant and certainly any human, that i see or come to know. and so i sense the strange contradiction: that we're both important and unimportant. after all, we‘re apparently both a transitory body and the very life continuum that animates it. 
     this is of course not a definitive statement on the subject of our importance or unimportance. but there's something about this path we’re on, and specifically meditation, that leaves one, in the end at least, ok with not having all those big questions answered. one seems to nevertheless end up with great love, affection, tremendous happiness and a deep appreciation for the apparent endless wonder that we call creation.
     best wishes always; nathan.

stop the presses!

headline: franziska heinze of the ‘nudes of wakefield calendar’ accused of misappropriation of funds.  

after reading the editorial i honestly felt that everyone needs to take a breath. 

i certainly understand why franziska’s upset, hurt, even outraged. she has every right to be. melanie shouldn’t have written that, should’ve thrown that letter into the garbage where it belonged. it was a mistake to give it any attention. but that’s what it was: a mistake. she should’ve turned her attention to how incredibly long it takes for road-work to get done around here. 

at the same time melanie did repeatedly point out that the letter was anonymous, that the writer offered absolutely no proof and that franziska’s hard work has precipitated local charities to receive “life-changing” assistance. frankly, i wondered why it’s anyone’s damn business anyway. 

her accuser is most likely some disgruntled, ugly, cowardly, bathdurd who‘s never been asked to be in the calendar. no not me. of course, i have often wondered. i mean, when i get out of the shower and look in the mirror at various angles i mumble to myself: ‘hey, who wouldn’t wanna see this?’ ok, i may not use those exact words but i digress.  

melanie’s made a mistake in judgment. but let’s face it: there’s not a helluva lot of scintillating stuff to write about. but we certainly didn’t need to read that nonsense. we’ve already read franziska like a book and that’s our very good fortune.