Very excellent story and wonderful story telling. Life is sweet, or certainly can be.
** --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > As many of you know, I live in a small French village > that saw its heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries. > It's now got all the modern conveniences, including > 8 Mbps Internet that really measures closes to 7 Mbps. > So I'm sitting there working on the Internet last > night and there's a big explosion outside and I look > out my window to see the transformer that routes elec- > tricity to our village go up in flames, just about > the time the lights clicked out. Here, for those > who are interested, is what a weird Tantric Buddhist > does in such a situation: > > * First I got up and lit a bunch of candles in my > house, smiling inwardly at those friends who had > laughed in the past at my candle fetish. I have > something like forty candlesticks in my house, > most of them of the wrought-iron medieval variety. > Hah!, thought I. Who's laughing now? > > * Then I lit a fire in the fireplace, both for light > and for heat (my heating is electric). > > * Finally, when the house was warm and cheery, I went > out with a flashlight to see if the whole village > was blacked out. It was, including the street lamps. > Seeing the opportunity for a really FUN experience > here, I scrounged around and made myself a torch > out of a stick and some rags, and wandered through > the streets for a while, seeing it as it was literally > designed to be seen, by firelight. Too cool to even > begin to describe. > > * After about an hour I wandered back towards my house > and noticed that a number of my neighbors, who had > the same faith in the efficiency of the EDF (power > company) as I did, were preparing for a long night > without electricity by having a party in Place > Astruc. The proprietor of the Comptoir de Singe > rolled out a big barbeque pit and lit a fire, and > put on a big pot of mulled wine, which he passed > around to everyone for free. Several of the local > musicians brought out their guitars, accordions, > violins, and drums and started making music. Some > young people danced. Hell...even some of the old > people danced. > > * At a certain point I started talking to a young > Irish tourist. She was out with the crowd because > (she said) her room at the Gite had no windows, > the Gite owner had no candles, and she was afraid > of the dark. So we danced for a while and talked > for another while and finally I invited her back > to my house, to get her some candles. Even though > she was attractive, she was also young enough to > be my granddaughter, so I really didn't have much > in mind other than giving her the candles. > > * She took one look at my place and flipped. Suffice > it to say my house is decorated in an eclectic > manner -- real Tibetan and Japanese art from the > 12th through the 18th centuries next to real Art > Nouveau next to modern art next to racks of computers > and TV equipment next to my collection of Plastic > Jesuses (or is that Jesi?) next to my stuffed Wile E. > Coyote and figurines of him chasing the Roadrunner, > the floors covered with Navajo and Pueblo Indian > rugs. It all looked quite smashing by candlelight. > > * So we sat in front of the fire and drank wine and > talked for hours. It turns out that her family line > was started by an Irish Catholic monk who got tired > of living in a cold monastery and denying himself > the things his neighbors enjoyed, and decided to > shack up instead with a sweet young thing from the > village, raising ruckus and a passle of kids. One > of my ancestors did exactly the same thing in > Scotland. We watched 'The Name of the Rose' on > my laptop until its little batteries gave out. > Providentially, they lasted just long enough to > get us to the scene where the young monk Adso is > seduced by the young peasant girl. It's a fairly > hot scene, and after watching it, she was a fairly > hot young Irish girl. Life is good sometimes. > > It's easy to focus on the light *in* the light. It's > sometimes more of a challenge to find light in the > darkness, but that's what makes the Tantric path > so much fun. >
