So lately I've been helping a neighbor/friend with a little sheetrocking in the morning. He needs a hand hanging the lid.
He's an interesting guy. A retired attorney of around my age (50ish) who has been living here on the Ridge for about 10 years. A relative newcomer to most of the folks around here, but a hard charging kind of guy who is real involved as a community leader - on the county planning commission, hosted politcal klatsches for a supervisor candidate (who won) and his wife is the head of the school board where his and my son attend. We carpool a lot, through the yuba canyon. So we had them for dinner a month or so back, I'd told him about ZAMM, he likes to discuss ideas and so he took it, read it, and I asked him about it first day at work. He didn't like it. Said it was full of crap he'd heard before. So I asked, "You actually read the whole thing?" He didn't really answer me then but instead launched into a tirade about the reality of gravity. So I figure he must have gotten stuck at that point, but the fact that he couldn't just admit that he rejected a book that he hadn't had the gumption to finish was kinda weird and as later clues came together I understood that there is this attorney-training thing happening in argumentation that is all about the win, baby. They never concede a point and if any niggling misconstruation is possible, they vehemently deny and oppress any point you're making as well. It can be a disconcerting style to deal with, to say the least. Other similarities between my friend and Rigel, besides the community leader and being attorneys, was the stiff morality. For those who observe a strict victorian morality there seems to be an intensely emotional attachment to "what they believe". In the middle of a rational discussion, he'd have to stop and beg me to stop what we are doing (working on his project) so that he could vehemently make his points. Usually points about free markets, immorality of socialism, immorality of modernism and so forth. He's a religious man, but has doubts about the bible. He didn't want to discuss religion, but used the philosophy gained from a lifetime exposure (his folks were missionaries) to religion and the bible to justify "his" world view. When I pointed out that the self was an intellectual construct, he went ballistic on me, but then later contradicted himself and conceded that point, sort of. Afterwards, I thought about the captain's encounter with Rigel and compared our two experiences. I too felt helpless in the face of SOMish certainty. One difference is that that the Captain headed on down the river and out of Rigel's orbit forever. I went back to work the next morning and morn after that and all next week and I'll be carpooling and neighbors forever. I have some potential in the continuity of the relationship to get through to this guy. But how? How does a budding bodhisattva construct a koan for a Rigelian sheetrocker? I must admit, he's the best sheetrock cutter I've ever worked with. The house we're working on has many complicated angles and light fixtures. He takes great pride in getting every single joint and cuttout exact. Unlike the normal sheetrocker who cuts around outlets a little large, he cuts them out a little small so that he can fine tune with his keyhole saw on installation. He admits he is working to impress the tapers. But of course who he's really working for is to impress himself. I've known a lot of tapers and they're not usually the kind of guys who's approval would raise anyone's status. Still, there is a craft involved in getting all the lines perfect. I don't call it art, but its something. Transferring the MoQ. That is the issue, eh? How? And maybe, why? Is it my own egoistic desire to "convert" that is at the heart of my concern? Am I trying to impress the kind of guy who's approval would raise my status? Or am I striving to liberate a sentient being from samsara and lead them to enlightenment? If I choose, I choose the latter. But now we are back to the how. How to construct a koan. How to lead out in a dialogue. How to deal with self-satisfied SOM. An ongoing challenge. -- ------------ Doing Good IS Being ------------ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
