Being a lazy Buddhist

I marvel some mornings in retirement about how quickly I have become so lazy. I always suspected that if I gave myself full sway I would be a very lazy person. It’s one of the reasons I kept going so hard, so long.

Now, in the morning, I make excellent coffee and take time to drink it, sitting quietly on the porch or while reading a book. I don’t rush. If I want to go to the store, I decide when it is convenient for me. If I want an apple crisp for supper, I take the time to make it.

When I am doing chores I take breaks and read, listen to music or just sit quietly and think. I meditate when I feel like it and not on any schedule that I can figure out or that is determined by work or anything external.

I have argued recently with friends that I like a good discussion, even a polite argument, on certain matters I think are important, things that have to do with community, public life, politics, et al.

My Buddhism instructor suggested I might want to discourage this “bad habit” in myself. And, instead, marvel at the views of others while suggesting I have taken another approach to the matter without explaining what. If they want to discuss this, I should act like Allen Ginsburg on the William Buckley TV show many years ago and simply say, “I love you” each time they try to engage me in further discussion.

I don’t think I could pull it off. I’m not THAT blissed out! But I get the point. Perhaps I should try. If it does run counter to my very nature, perhaps it will be interesting to see if I can change that at this late date.

Traffic

In 1935 two bridges were completed over the Cape Cod Canal. They are both steel suspension bridges, maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers, and built by the WPA, no doubt under budget and on time. And at that time, let’s guess that 10,000 people lived year round on Cape Cod. That was the total population, all of it, from Wood’s Hole to Provincetown, that those bridges were built to handle.

Today, 75 years later, with a population of, again let’s estimate 300,000 living year round here, we still use those bridges. They are the only way on and off Cape Cod for automobile traffic. Approximately 100,000 cars travel over the two bridges every day. When the Corp needs to do maintenance, like at the moment on the Sagamore bridge, the resulting backups stretch for miles, all day, every day. It’s like the Southeast Expressway in Boston.

On a larger scale, our Interstate Highway System was begun during the Eisenhower Administration more than fifty years ago. Ike realized in WWII that we would need to be able to move people and materials quickly from one place to another in this country as the Germans were doing. We have not tackled such a project since. We add onto and modify a system that is too old, too slow and completely lacking in capacity for today’s world. Have you ever tried to travel along Route 95 in Connecticutt?

With highways, and airports, malls, parks and a thousand other things we might consider as a community, we must all agree on the merits of the project. If just one person says no, then who are we to force this on them against their will? This appears true today regardless of the needs of the larger community.

Granted, lots of mistakes were made building the original Interstate Highway System. Hopefully, we wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. But to plan to do nothing at all seems crazy to me. We need two more bridges of the same size over the Cape Cod Canal, four lanes in each direction both in Sagamore and Bourne.

Imagine having to evacuate the Cape for some reason with the current bridges. It would be a disaster.

Wishing people would just say no to driving automobiles is just silly.

I generally like political discussion, even argument if it is conducted without rancor. In my family, and with certain friends, we always talked about politics. Some of my friends and family members, for that matter, are very conservative, others are more liberal. No one has developed hard feelings over such discussions or felt particularly condescended to that I know of. But that's been suggested as the likely outcome by some people after I forwarded some political items recently to my e-mail list.

I have often modified my views after talking with someone I respected about current events. It would sadden me to suggest that any discussion or e-mail of mine smacks of telling someone what to think. I, of all people, don't know enough about anything to tell anyone what to think! I do have opinions, however, and though I'm sure they are often misguided, they are rarely carved in stone.

I think this experience of my e-mail list is reflective of something deeply wrong in our country at the moment. It worries me. This very small sample of folks can't discuss anything remotely political in a civil and thoughtful manner, whether we disagree a little or a lot, whether conservative or liberal. How do we get to middle ground if positions are inflexible and compromise is thought to be surrender.

This furthers my thought that some of what the Internet is doing is letting folks solidify positions and never, ever, consider a different point of view.

The old Subject Headings in a library card catalog sometimes led folks like me to very different material than we set out looking for in the beginning and I believe that was a positive thing. And newspapers provided the opportunity to sometimes see an article or opinion piece that differed from my present view. All that is essentially gone for lots of people. If you want to see a different view on-line you have to find it and go get it. It doesn't just pop up in front of you.

The Internet may be contributing to the fact that no one is listening to anyone else. No one has to compromise in Second Life!

Today some folks only watch MSNBC (or FOX News) and search web sites that amuse them and confirm their world view. I think that's missing the point. Who benefits? What about the greater good? What might a compromise actually look like?

I'm a middle of the road guy. A friend tells me that's just the place to be if you want to be run over! I want tort reform in medical malpractice and a public option that may help to drive down costs of health insurance. And, unlike preaching to the choir, I like talking to people with different points of view because I think it will help me to form a better perspective on what's not just good for me but good for the country as well.