semicolon, naikan, and raisin
kelly | 20 February 2008 - 12:56am
No time at present moment to write original content, so I shall direct you to interesting articles instead!
This appealed to the word nerdy New Yorker in me:
Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location
And this I find to be a lovely guide for reflection, for seeing the big picture through the little things, with an emphasis on gratitude:
Reflecting on You
And finally, John Stamos! In A Raisin in the Sun next Monday night! It's a 3-hour special. Special because he's in it.
all comments photoblog
reflecting on klog
What have I received from K? An abundance of laughter, tears and nostalgia, emotions evoked from an appreciation of her resonance with the simple beauties of life and her artistry in conveying those. And quite possibly an english major through osmosis.
What have I given to K? The free-rider in me says Absolutely Zilch; I have taketh, but not giveth. Shame on me, but shhhhh, naikan is all about cultivating a positive mentality right? Not only a positive mentality, but also a positive character portrait. Thus my indulgence is excused. (heh)
What troubles have I caused K? Complaints that klog was being a complete snob by bouncing me out. Only that K was too gracious; she apologised profusely and turned my complaints into something entirely positive.
Two years ago when I was 21 I lived in a zen monastery for 3 weeks because I wanted to experience Buddhist philosophy first hand. Because, you know, I didn’t want to read about it in Zen for Dummies. I did the full shebang: monk robes, arhat shoes, 10pm lights outs and 5am starts (in the middle of freaking winter, but oh the tangible beauty of dark, frosty mornings), eating in silence and other complicated rituals, meditating cross-legged for hours...everything but shaving my head. Over there, Naikan was implicit in every action and thought. It was a monastery in every way but its commercial activities; the amount of food cooked for tourists meant I was offered the luxury of a vegetarian buffet almost every meal (which I, of course, accepted to compensate for those early starts) and ended up weighing 5 ks heavier after 3 weeks. Yeah, 5 kilos of vegetables heavier. From, of all places, a herbivorous monastery that practises the austerity of Buddhism.
All in all however, the place gave me a lot weight (physical and philosophical), I gave some back (but not enough to do what it gave me justice), and I probably caused a lot of trouble with my uninhibited ways (the lead chanting monk’s totally handsome baritone made my 5am starts more than worthwhile).
Yeah, noticed my semicolon use? ;)
I read and enjoyed that article about the semi-colon too! And I got a special thrill because just the day before, I had directed my coworker to use a semi-colon in a very similar sentence and I felt like the NYT was personally endorsing my choice of punctuation. I mean, if the NYT says it, it HAS to be right.
My favorite part about the two stories:
1. There was a correction to the NYT article.
2. Naikan lens (ha, ha, snort)
I'm going to leave it at that because my grammar is awful. My worst offense is habitually leaving off question marks and using just the period, often forgetting that I just asked a question.
I laughed when I saw that semicolon article earlier today. I think it's definitely underused!
And Naikan sounds like a great way to redirect negative energy.
And John Stamos, well, he's still very, very attractive.
I sent that article about Naikan (lens, that was funny) on to my husband. I think it is a fabulous tool. He took a class on the Tao te Ching a few years ago and it was the closest I've ever felt to him.
And semicolons? Let me tell you, I type medical records for a living and whenever I try to put a ; in there, the doctors FREAK out. They Do Not Like Them, thank you very much.
I do though, and put them in there just to tick them off.
You're being too generous, jane. And of course you've given me something. The appreciation, and resonance, in your email meant very much to me. And how freakin' cool that you lived in a monastery! What a powerful experience, and one that surely informs your perspective on a daily basis.
Love it, geeky! The NYT applauds you! And they are certainly right; they're the paper of record, after all.
UCM, I totally noticed the Naikan lens thing, too! Made me chortle.
I have always been a fan of the semicolon, Jenski. And of John Stamos. Both, I think, are underappreciated by the general public.
That's funny about the doctors, Jana. Keep trying to convert them - someday they'll realize the power of proper punctuation.
I saw a link to that semicolon article over at SPOGG yesterday. I just love that you are as big a grammar nerd as I am. :)